Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
RE: What's the deal with SSH? (was: PIX software release 5.2)
From: sean.kelly () lanston com
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 14:15:15 -0400
From: shewitt () cdw com [mailto:shewitt () cdw com] Pardon my ignorance with this, but what's the big deal about using something like SecureCRT? That's basically a secure telnet, right?
In its simplest incarnation, yes, though in reality just about anything can be tunneled through the SSH protocol.
I do all my configuring of my PIXen from the inside interface, and I'm on a almost completely switched network. So, I'm not too concerned about somebody sniffing my telnet session.
As other people have noted, don't mistake switching for some sort of network security panacea. And you should certainly be concerned if you're using telnet to connect to locations you'd prefer be kept off-limits. All it takes to grab a username/password is have a box in a position to pick up traffic with its ethernet card set in promiscuous mode.
Do you use SSH to protect against people sniffing on local segments, or is the concern when going across the internet?
SSH serves to help prevent someone from snooping on the packet stream passing between two computers. This includes the authentication process, which is why it is so widely favored over telnet (because telnet does its authentication via plaintext). It should be noted, however, that all SSH does is secure the datastream between the two endpoints. There are a ton of ways the security of the actual session could still be broken. Still, it's far better than telnet.
Also, I only enable telnet on the inside interface, so I don't even worry about people connecting from the outside interface.
Then I guess it depends on whether you trust everyone with either physical access to your network or remote access to any PC that may be in a position to monitor your telnet session (your own PC notwithstanding, since that would circumvent even the security SSH offers). Sean _______________________________________________ Firewall-wizards mailing list Firewall-wizards () nfr net http://www.nfr.net/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
Current thread:
- RE: What's the deal with SSH? (was: PIX software release 5.2) shewitt (Sep 22)
- RE: What's the deal with SSH? (was: PIX software release 5.2) Carson Gaspar (Sep 22)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: What's the deal with SSH? (was: PIX software release 5.2) sean . kelly (Sep 25)
- RE: What's the deal with SSH? (was: PIX software release 5.2) Robert Purdy (Sep 26)