[Virtual-pkg-base-maintainers] Bug#567101: base: Command cat /dev/port freezes computer

[Nicholas]

Package: base
Severity: normal

Hi, I'm new to linux and I wanted to experiment as much as possible. 
I entered a (possible foolish) command into my GNOME terminal emulator running as root:
'cat /dev/port'
The screen filled up very quickly with gibberish (as I expected), but then the computer froze completely. 
Mouse didn't work, no virtual consoles accessible and so on. 
Ctrl + C didn't bring be back to a bash prompt. 

Not a biggie, I don't think, but in case it's something that needs fixing, I will report it. 

Thanks,

Nick. 

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.3
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash