Hackers Bringing Telnet Back 238
alphadogg writes "A new report from Akamai Technologies (CT: Requires login) shows that hackers appear to be increasingly using the Telnet remote access protocol to attack corporate servers over mobile networks.
The report, which covers the third quarter of 2010, shows that 10 percent of attacks that came from mobile networks are directed at Port 23, which Telnet uses. That marks a somewhat unusual spike for the aging protocol used to log into remote servers but that has been gradually replaced by SSH."
People stopped using Telnet? (Score:5, Insightful)
I use telnet constantly. Port 110 to check for a broken email header, Port 25 to check for SMTP auth errors, Port 3200 to check for the present of a NetGen DSS unit, etc, etc... I love telnet. Simple 3-way handshake and boom, datastream.
A tip for management (Score:5, Insightful)
If you manage your company or institution's IT department, please do the following:
Step 1: Turn on "telnet" on your PC. [microsoft.com] (Of course you Windows, you're management, right?)
Step 2: Try to "telnet" to your company's website, or to any other machine or service names your underlings bandy about.
Step 3: If you don't see "Connection refused" every time, FIRE EVERYONE WHO REPORTS TO YOU.
Misleading headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Hackers Bringing Telnet Back? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:People stopped using Telnet? (Score:5, Insightful)
I use telnet constantly. Port 110 to check for a broken email header, Port 25 to check for SMTP auth errors, Port 3200 to check for the present of a NetGen DSS unit, etc, etc... I love telnet. Simple 3-way handshake and boom, datastream.
Sure, the telnet client is useful. I use it all the time for those very same reasons.
But actually running a telnet server and allowing incoming connections on port 23? Nope. Stopped doing that for everything I could years ago, switched to SSH on everything that would support it. The things that wouldn't support it were all tucked away on our inside network. I've got nothing facing the world that'll accept connections on port 23.
Re:Good ole days (Score:5, Insightful)
If telnet reminds you of when you were young you aren't old.
Re:People stopped using Telnet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hackers Bringing Telnet Back? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:who still uses telnet? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:who still uses telnet? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not a good reason to use telnet. That's a good reason not to use Godaddy.
(Using dreamhost.com here, and I use ssh and rsync-over-ssh to do all of that... I wonder if sshfs would work, I imagine it would.)
Re:who still uses telnet? (Score:4, Insightful)
They are forgetting something... (Score:5, Insightful)