Article View: comp.sys.mac
Article #3984Re: NCSA Telnet release announcement
From: Jeffrey C. Kantor
Date: Sun, 03 Sep 1989 14:41
Date: Sun, 03 Sep 1989 14:41
30 lines
2025 bytes
2025 bytes
In article <15372@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>, matthews@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews) writes:
> Does Telnet 2.3 still ship with the FTP server enabled and no password
> security? I was quite surprised to learn that running version 2.2 made
> it possible for anyone with an FTP client to read the files on my hard
> disk and plant viruses in my system folder. In fact, with enough
> naive Telnet users around you could imagine an AppleTalk "worm" program
> that ftp'd itself from machine to machine.
>
> Is security in version 2.3 any better?
Apparently not. After having installed a 2.3 a few weeks ago, I was busy
working on our local Unix host to find someone ftp'ing to the same IP number
that I was using. I recogonized the user as a friendly student so no
alarm on my part, but I thought there may have been some sort of IP number
mixup on our local net.
Imagine my surprise when I found out he had full (r/w) ftp access to my Mac!
This is definitely a serious security flaw. The manual doesn't really address
the problem in an explicit fashion. Keep in mind, of course, that most users
do not even read the manual.
At a minimum, ftp should not be enabled as distributed. And when the user
does enable ftp, a dialog box should warn the user that ftp leaves your
mac open to the entire internet.
--
Jeff Kantor
US Mail: Dept. of Chemical Engineering
internet: jeff@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu University of Notre Dame
uucp: iuvax!ndmath!ndcheg!jeff Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<745@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ndcheg!jeffReferences:
<600048@zaphod> <15372@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ndcheg!jeff From: jeff@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu (Jeffrey C. Kantor) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: NCSA Telnet release announcement Summary: This is a problem! Message-ID: <745@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu> Date: 3 Sep 89 14:41:38 GMT References: <600048@zaphod> <15372@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> Organization: Dep't of Chemical Eng., Univ. of Notre Dame Lines: 30