Bug#881626: busybox: enable telnetd

[Geert Stappers <stappers@stappers.nl>]

On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 01:50:52PM +0100, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 05:16:26PM +0000, Luca Boccassi wrote:
> > 
> > Please consider enabling telnetd in the busybox package.
> > 
> > As much as I wish it wasn't the case, telnet is still widely used,
> > especially in the ISP/telco world. Telcos networking engineers expect
> > to be able to telnet into boxes in their network even today.
> 
> As much as I don't mind doing weird things in support of weird use
> cases, in this particular case I think that would be sending out the
> wrong message. We shouldn't do that, IMO, but rather encourage people to
> switch to SSH instead of telnet.

Busybox upstream does that in https://busybox.net/tinyutils.html
Which has a pointer to http://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/

> It might make sense to add some documentation that explains why telnet
> isn't supported, however.

Text from the homepage of dropbear

  Dropbear SSH

  Dropbear is a relatively small SSH server and client. It runs on a
  variety of POSIX-based platforms. Dropbear is open source software,
  distributed under a MIT-style license. Dropbear is particularly useful
  for "embedded"-type Linux (or other Unix) systems, such as wireless
  routers.


That in other words:

  There is an alternative for telnetd

  There is NO need to keep sending clear text passwords ...



Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven