Re: application for an employment

[Raoul Armfield <armfield () amnh org>]

Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers wrote:
> On 2006-03-31 Craig Wright wrote:
> > The idea that you as a general Internet user have to scan a host to
> > find services is technically wrong and ludicrous in its inception.
> > Never has this been the case. The idea that having to connect to a
> > service could be justification for port scanning is incredulous to
> > state the least.
>
> Please elaborate. Why do you believe this to be technically wrong. What
> other mechanism than portscanning do you have at hand that will give you
> an overview of which hosts run which services in a given network range?

DNS.  Dig or nslookup is entirely different than a portscan.  These two 
tools simply connect to your approved DNS server and pulls down records 
that I have made publicly available (advertised if you will).  There is 
no protscanning involved. (unless of course you wrote your own version 
of dig :) )



> > This is a simple reasonableness test. If you want to send mail - do
> > you have to scan a site - the answer, No. When going to a web site do
> > you have to check if the have an IPsec VPN to the host, the answer,
> > No.
>
> How do I find out about the mail server? How do I find out about the
> webserver? How do I get permission to access them?

Why do you need to know if I am running a mailserver?  If you have email 
 then you have a mail server that you have permission to use.  There is 
no reason to portscan my systems to see if I am running a mail server. 
If I want my mail server to me known about there will be a DNS server 
somewhere who has my MX record registered. This DNS will in turn 
register it with other DNS servers thus giving permission for others to 
find out about it.  It could be said that registering with DNS is 
advertising these services thus granting permission.  Same applies to 
webservices.  Anything beyond that will be advertised via links on 
various sites.  Why do you need to portscan my IP space to see if I have 
an FTP server running.  If there is something there you need?

Raoul


--
Raoul Armfield
rarmfield at amnh dot org

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EARN A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION ASSURANCE - ONLINE
The Norwich University program offers unparalleled Infosec management 
education and the case study affords you unmatched consulting experience. 
Tailor your education to your own professional goals with degree 
customizations including Emergency Management, Business Continuity Planning, 
Computer Emergency Response Teams, and Digital Investigations. 

http://www.msia.norwich.edu/secfocus
---------------------------------------------------------------------------