Re: Alternatives to sftp?

["John Sec" <john_sec_lists () hotmail com>]

> On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 07:37:04PM +0000, John Sec wrote:
> > Hey list,
>
> Hello citizen.
>
> > I was wondering what the alternatives were to something like sftp?
> > I have two servers that need to send files (approx. 10mb) to each
> > other a couple of times a day and I wanted to know what other
> > options I had to do it securely. Is there anything else out there
> > besides sftp and pgp for something like this?
>
> I gotta figure you are hoping there is something faster.  And there
> really isn't.
>
> If you need the file to be encrypted during transfer, no matter what
> way you transfer it, it still has to be encrypted and this is where
> the CPU time goes.
>
> If you don't need the crypto, but want to ensure integrity, use a
> cypher of "none" in ssh (some servers, rightfully, force a cypher
> other than none).
>
> If you really do need encrypted traffic, you might want to make sure
> you are using AES or TwoFish rather than 3des as they are much faster.
> Arcfour is even faster, but not felt to be as secure.
>
> You could use rsync over ssh if the files don't change much.  This
> will save a bit of bandwidth, and maybe some CPU.
>
> PS You mention ssh *and* pgp.  If your files are encrypted with pgp,
>         they don't need to be encrypted during transit.

I wasn't even aware that sftp provided a way to transfer files without 
encryption.  Looking at the man page that I found online, I do not see this 
option.  How exactly can you tell it to force integrity without encrypting 
the file?  Do you think that encrypting the file with PGP and then using 
sftp to transfer the file (no encryption, only integrity) would save any CPU 
cycles?  I'm only asking out of curiosity now as it may come in handy in the 
future.

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