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I have to fight a strong urge to VTC any question that shows up in this format on Sec.SE. Am I doing the community a favor by showing this superhuman amount of restraint, or are these questions a plague upon the house of Sec.SE?

These questions are only half a chromosome removed from Lets Go Shopping, and appear to straddle the line between Too Localized, Not a Real Question, and Not Constructive, showing plenty of traits between all three.

https://security.stackexchange.com/search?q=is+it+safe+to+use

What to do?

Here's the most recent question that drew my attention, and a good example of what I mean:
Is it secure to use ChangeHats for Web Application?

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I commend your restraint, I agree that these questions are pretty bad. Mainly because to be answered we first need to get clarity on what they are wanting to do/protect etc.

They are hard work questions- a comment helping them improve could be a good response, but I also understand a VTC.

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  • 8
    Agree - this can be useful questions, but they would need a lot more context - but not too much that they become TL. There are certain technologies that its fair to say: "NO DON'T USE THAT EVAR!!", but I think those are not so common.
    – AviD Mod
    Jan 30, 2013 at 11:00
  • 2
    Java is an interesting example of this. When there's an unpatched 0day, the answer is almost certainly no. When there's not, the answer is "I guess, if you're careful". So the answer quickly becomes defunct. The trick is to re-write the question to ask about specific bugs / issues.
    – Polynomial
    Feb 3, 2013 at 15:18
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It is safe to use _, but only if you're careful. What specifically are you trying to protect with _?

Bear in mind that no one security measure alone- even _- will ensure security. Security is a frame of mind, and a set of policies, more than it is simply an individual product or protocol.

1
  • ...It was just too tempting to pass up.
    – root
    Apr 6, 2013 at 2:11

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