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Comment by albert_e | Hacker News Reader

> Failure to do so could result in monster-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks against TLS clients, including python.org and pypi.org .

Monster?

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Gender-neutral variant of man-in-the-middle. They should have just used something less controversial like master-in-the-middle.

To be fair, a monster is scary so it fits. Malice in the middle perhaps would have been less confusing.

Monkey-in-the-middle would've worked since someone could monkey with your packets and it's already an established name for a children's game

"master" is less controversial?

No, it's a reference/joke to the old controversy regarding master/slave naming in computer circles. I don't know how far back that controversy goes, I probably heard about it about a decade ago.

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/master-slave-and-t...

I think that was sarcasm

Or, you know, man-in-the-middle because that was already a correct, perfectly clear use of English.

I prefer the chaotic option of MITM-in-the-middle.

(Mallory-in-the-middle is OK too.)

> Gender-neutral variant of man-in-the-middle

Countless and countless, no, millions of male developers felt discriminated against whenever someone called it Man-in-the-middle. This went on unaccounted for for decades! Finally we’re being seen!

Not to mention all the women who were misogynisticly attacked by assuming women can’t be hackers.

Finally justice. It’s very important that we’re getting our priorities right when talking about security vulnerabilities!

> who were misogynisticly attacked by assuming women can’t be hackers

Eve would like to have a word with you. I haven't heard of Heidi before... but she's apparently one of the cast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob#Cast_of_characte...

As a sentient cephalopod who has enjoyed hacking staff computers when I slip out of my tank at the National Aquarium every night, I can only say it feels good to be seen. We're finally making progress on de-centering hominid perspectives in favor of a more diverse range of natural intelligences!

Madame-in-the-middle

The women developers would like to cede this gender-neutral replacement back to the men, we don't want to be included.

I absolutely love monster-in-the-middle. Big round of applause to whoever thought of that.

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