Baslinux mailing list

[Karolis Lyvens <karolisl AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 07:03:56AM -0600, Samual Acorn wrote:
> On 27/01/07, sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> > I found 101 pages of man for nmap.  The TAG people (who had various
> > theories about lpr and root, and also suggested a printing script
> > instead) keep telling me running as root is insecure and to check my
> > ports.  nmap works in BL2 (nmapfe wants libc5 X).  It listed a lot of
> > open ports at sdf.lonestar.org.  21 23 79 80 etc.  telnet ftp http?
> 
> er... cos i dont want you getting in trouble.. -please- ask before
> scanning a system that doesnt belong to you... portscans are rather
> frowned upon... most admins will see one and think an attack is not
> too far behind... think of it as surveying the battlefeild before
> starting the fight...

Yep, but when you're scanning your own machines, you're admin of
yourself, so you don't have to worry about any trouble caused by port
scanning.

> >
> > nmap -v -A 127.0.0.1 said all 1663 ports are closed.
> 
> with no services (ftpd, httpd, telnetd, etc) running thats normal....
> but as you found out X opens a port (6000) to the outside world when
> running...

But, as default (when you startx, not startxt), X clients are allowed
only from localhost (127.0.0.1). Meaning that Xvesa itself denies access
for outside clients.

> > How should I use nmap to check if my computer is vulnerable while online?
> > If I don't run telnetd sshd etc is there any security risk?
> 
> you would need to probe it from another system over the net to see how
> it acts... a good online portscanner is at www.grc.com ... click
> 'sheilds up' on the first page then click it again on the second...
> (bad site design)... youll need to use opera for that site (lynx/links
> wont work)

If you want a better scanner that doesn't require javascript (maybe it
will work even with lynx/links):

http://www.hq42.net/net_tools/index.php