Re: Alternatives to sftp?

[Brad Arlt <arlt () cpsc ucalgary ca>]

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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   __o          Bradley Arlt                    Security Team Lead
 _ \<_          arlt () cpsc ucalgary ca                University Of Calgary
(_)/(_)         Joyously Canadian               Computer Science

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