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https://wwwold.e18.physik.tu-muenchen.de/mailman/listinfo/cern-excursion-2012

It's powered by python.

Does it mean that the smartest people in CERN thnik that Python is more secure than e.g. PHP or Ruby?

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The untrusted certificate protecting that site isn't helping your case... – TheLQ Nov 2 '12 at 15:23
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Unfortunately, this type of question is very good at soliciting bickering without providing any good technical merit. It really just means they use mailman which is written in python. – Scott Pack Nov 2 '12 at 19:35
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The question is almost entirely irrelevant. CERN is not concerned primarily with security, and their smartest people have nothing to do with security - they are physicists! – Rory Alsop♦ Nov 3 '12 at 0:57

closed as off topic by Iszi, Polynomial, lynks, Terry Chia, Rory Alsop♦ Mar 30 at 20:23

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3 Answers

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In answer to your original question, the system you are looking at is not a CERN system, but rather a particularly popular listserv platform called MailMan. I don't think that this can infer anything about the security of the platform though since there is nothing to indicate that security was a concern in the selection of a platform, even for other sites they might post. Ultimately, unless someone comes out and says that they choose Python for security reasons, you can't make a logically sound argument that the use or disuse of Python is an indication that someone feels it is more secure.

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The real reason why a developer chooses a language is because they like it. No developer is going to intentionally be insecure, yet vulnerabilities exist everywhere (even on SO!).

A useful security feature that Ruby has that PHP and Python do not officially support is Taint Mode. So even if the developers are stupid, then they could accidentally write more secure code with Ruby than PHP or Python, by use Taint Mode.

People are developing taint mode for python. PHP is also considering a Taint Mode, but don't hold your breath.

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up vote 12 down vote

Does it mean that the smartest people in CERN think that Python is more secure than e.g. PHP or Ruby?

No. I'm sure this has nothing to do with anybody's thoughts about the security of the language. What you're looking at is a Mailman listserve. Mailman is a very common hosting platform for listserves, and that message is a standard part of the page. See http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-developers and notice it's the same layout and logos. Besides that, this is hosted on what looks like a university domain: http://www.tu-muenchen.de/

That said, CERN does make use of Python (note that this is their domain): http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/974627. A NOAA presentation explains why Python gets heavy use in their organization on this side of the Atlantic: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/users/lwicker/public_html/Python/UpdatedPythonTalk.pdf

Finally, scientific / academic research usually doesn't focus on the security of things. They're not running publicly connected systems much of the time, and even when they are data leakage isn't a disaster. The goal is to share the results.

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I have a feeling it's mainly about what's easily accessible for most researchers. – Polynomial Oct 28 '12 at 18:47

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