Re: Some technical errors

[Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers <bugtraq () planetcobalt net>]

On 2006-04-03 Craig Wright wrote:
> Ansgar wrote..."Wrong. The only technical differences between a
> portscanner and dig are:A portscan will report that a port is
> open/closed/filtered, whereas dig will retrieve data after the connect.
> - A portscan may be run against a range of ports and/or a range of hosts
> (giving you an overview of the network), whereas dig will only connect
> to a single port on a single host."
>
> Last time I checked, a port scanner and dig did completely different
> tasks. So did an email client and a port scanner.

I'm not talking about tasks. I'm talking about what the programs do on
layer 4.

> Next, it has been proposed that an Internet user would need to port
> scan to send e-mail.

No. There is a major difference between may and must. However, a
portscan will deliver, even if there's no other source of information,
so it is a fallback if nothing else.

> A selection of a header is attached below as answer to the statement
> that this (a port scan) is needed. The header attached is one from a
> security focus message. The header demonstrates that the email is sent
> from a mail client.
[...]
> Now being the user in question generally sends email using a mail
> client. That the user does not have to port scan the site to send mail
> and that the act of sending mail is not aided in any manner from a port
> scan, how can port scanning a server to see if it runs SMTP be (to a
> reasonable man) considered valid.

Non sequitur.

Regards
Ansgar Wiechers
-- 
"All vulnerabilities deserve a public fear period prior to patches
becoming available."
--Jason Coombs on Bugtraq

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