RE: [cobalt-users] PortSentry

[elmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

} ...and ignoring the hosts, while opening you up to internal attacks on
} those specific ports, is still a better solution since you continue to
} be alerted if someone from Outside tries to hack your server through
} those ports.

	Servers are not hacked through ports. They're most commonly
hacked through insecure passwords, configuration errors (or lack
thereof) and known exploitable holes in services which may or may
not be accessible through a port. As some who lurk this list have
learned the hard way, a working portsentry installation will not
prevent a server from being exploited by either of the two exploits
which have been discussed on this list during the past few days and
which have long been known to problematic.

	I mean no one, particularly you Rodolfo, any insult but
portsentry is most certainly not a means to an end. With the low
level of technical expertise on this list it simply is not right to
even inadvertently lull someone into a false sense of security.
At best portsentry is a slick way of keeping one informed about what
goes in their little corner of the electronic haze of cyberspace. At
worst it's a toy that, if misconfigured, can and very often is used
to lock one out of their own server.