Re: Write-only devices (Was read only devices)

[jrvalverde () samba cnb uam es (J.R.Valverde)]

> I always wondered why the heck this happens. While knowing what account is
> being attempted is valuable, why the heck doesn't the code just try and
> see if pAsSwOrD is a valid account name?  If it isn't, don't display it
> or say "failed login attempt for an undefined system user."
        Then you miss some interesting patterns like, e.g. someone mistyping
a username or trying for common usernames. I know of many sites that rename
'root' or 'system' to something different, or that do not have a 'postmaster'
or... These attacks, specially with default accounts that on some systems
still come with default passwords would be missed. For instance.

        Crackers do not use old-well-known techiniques. They are constantly
devising new methods, and you can't know in advance what these will be,
hence you can't easily discard any information in advance either.

                                jr