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Surprise, a security hole

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Posted by

Shaun Biggs USA (644 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #15 on Fri 20 Apr 2007 09:21 AM (UTC)

Message

A hub will display all incoming data to every port. A switch will recognize which port is supposed to get the data, and only send it to that port. Routers are switches which are a bit "smarter" in that it can assign subnet addresses to the various ports. The terms are pretty much interchangeable nowadays, since nearly everyone is using routers (except for me, I love my switch). And anyone using a hub in a high traffic environment that needs to be secure should just be fired.

Also, packet sniffers do not have to be obvious. There are a few programs I've played with that cause your computer to just listen to network traffic without announcing it's presence. You have absolutely no control over what your computer is connected to once the connection goes outside the house. Someone at the isp may be taking a look at what you're doing.

Not to instill paranoia here, these things do happen, but only very rarely. The odds of someone both looking at your unencrypted telnet connection to your mud server and caring about it are pretty much nonexistent.

It is much easier to fight for one's ideals than to live up to them.

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Posted by

David Haley USA (3,881 posts) Bio

Date

Reply #16 on Fri 20 Apr 2007 04:14 PM (UTC)

Message

Quote:
Someone at the isp may be taking a look at what you're doing.

Or at any one of the hops from you to destination, and everybody from those subnets potentially listening to what is being sent on those subnets...

Quote:
The odds of someone both looking at your unencrypted telnet connection to your mud server and caring about it are pretty much nonexistent.

Probably. I seem to recall reading about programs that the "bad guys" run to scan all packets they see, looking for keywords like bank account, password, etc. in an attempt to catch clear text transmission of sensitive data.

David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org

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