On Saturday 24 July 2004 12:37, Michael Sullivan wrote: > I've been following the "Hack Attempts" thread and I've come to the > conclusion that having my router route port 22 requests through to > my server PC is not safe. Here's my situation. I use my server PC > for web hosting and email. Most of my users access their accounts > from outside the router (my network is based in my apartment and my > wife and I are the only ones who use it here.) I don't users > telnetting in because of the security risk (I don't quite > understand this, but I've read about it in more than one place, so > it's probably true), so I've enabled ssh so that they can log in > and change their passwords if need be. They upload their web pages > through FTP, supplying their username and password. Spammers try to > use the mail server every day - I have to read about it in my daily > Logwatch, but I don't think they ever succeed. I should probably > keep a closer eye on the logs. Is there a way for users to change > their passwords through their FTP clients? Or is there a safer way > to allow them to change their passwords? You will have people trying to break in to any service you offer; telnet, ftp, ssh, smtp, etc, etc, etc...... If that service has username:password access then you will see people trying well known attacks in order to gain access. Some services customarily transmit usernames:passwords in clear text for anyone capturing data to see; ftp and telnet, for example. Some services offer the ability to configure for encrypted logins in order to make it much more difficult to capture and read; ssh and smtp, for example. In either case, once a user account name has been discovered an account with an easy to guess password (any word found in a dictionary, for example) is easily cracked and your machine is at the mercy of the cracker at the other end of the connection. Regards, Mike Klinke
