Security for Traveling?

[The Liquidator]

Re: Security for Traveling?

We changed ISPs some time back and the results were interesting.

When on my original adsl connection, I did a check at Gibson and got all green boxes (full stealth). It showed my personal .co.uk domain. Then I enabled a firewall from within my account at the ISP. Gibson again correctly recorded my domain but now showed SSH (IIRC port 22) as blocked.

I then changed ISPs . Gibson now reports the IP address as <several numbers and letters> @ <ISP Name> and shows all green boxes but the stealth test fails because there was a response to a ping!

So it seems the test can be undermined by the settings that the ISP adopts. That suggests to me that the only way to properly test the actual computer would to be to do the test from a connection that you know to be totally insecure. Alternatively, it will be good practice to at least do the common ports test from each new location before actually using it

[kubicle]

Re: Security for Traveling?

I'm just reporting what I see. Perhaps some stuff responds to both and the admin has a choice - I don't know.

Of course one can have ssl enabled telnetd listening on port 23 (though the "traditional default" is port 992)

Nobody's hacked my radio yet and the network keeps on going just fine around here.

"Old-fashioned" hacking isn't the main problem with plain telnet...the biggest issue with telnet is using it, as login credentials and all data is sent unencrypted which makes it fairly easy to "eavesdrop" on the connection and susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks.

but you are welcome to try my outward facing IP: 66.244.241.250

Does your router offer telnet connections to WAN? I'm fairly certain kubuntu (or any other mainstream distribution) does not install a telnet daemon by default...so there should be nothing listening on port 23 unless you install it yourself.

I think we're had this discussion before

Oh...I'll drop the subject then, it is a bit off-topic.

[zlow]

Re: Security for Traveling?

Things to look out for:

If you are in your hotel room, you are probably on a private DSL connection, however if you are using the hotel WIFI it may be open. In that case, you have to watch out for attempts at man in the middle attacks.

Someone in the immediate area could be broadcasting the MAC address of the local WIFI router to redirect traffic to his computer and then out to the real router. This can be used to capture non encrypted traffic like your non encrypted pop3 email password (unless you are using spop IE: Gmail).

Since you only have 1 computer, you shouldn't have to worry about spoof injection, as there really isn't anything to spoof however a basic firewall would still serve you well. The free "scan my computer" firewalls available on the internet only looks for remotely accessible ports, if you aren't broadcasting any you probably aren't going to be bothered with, however unless you have an iptables policy of dropping any external sourced traffic not initiated from inside, and ICMP off, you will reply to pings.

My advice, check for anything that you may be sending from your computer in the clear (forum passwords, pop3 passwords, etc) and if you find anything that isn't https or some form of SSL, it could be captured pretty easily at an internet cafe or on hotel WIFI.

Try to find a secure method to send that traffic (SSH tunnel, VPN), or accept the risk of the passwords getting stolen.

[ScottyK]

Re: Security for Traveling?

Try to find a secure method to send that traffic (SSH tunnel, VPN), or accept the risk of the passwords getting stolen.

I've used this in the past, is this what you are talking about?

http://www.http-tunnel.com/html/solu...nel/client.asp

[zlow]

Re: Security for Traveling?

Try to find a secure method to send that traffic (SSH tunnel, VPN), or accept the risk of the passwords getting stolen.

I've used this in the past, is this what you are talking about?

http://www.http-tunnel.com/html/solu...nel/client.asp

I haven't used that particular product, I use openvpn to my house. That may work just as well though.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Security for Traveling?

Or, openvpn and kvpnc in the repository, with instructions here.

[undoIT]

Re: Security for Traveling?

Here's a new article and update on this topic:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20021188-245.html

After reading that, I do not feel comfortable using unencrypted wifi networks at all.