Re: Security

["Gary L. Hennigan" <glhenni@cs.sandia.gov>]

Evan Moore <evan@info.load-otea.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca> wrote:
>If a person has a box connected to a network, but there are no daemons
>such as telnetd, ftpd etc etc is it still possible for that box to be
>hacked into?

There is no way to have perfect security on any system connected to a
network. It's just about impossible. With something like Linux, which
is changing all the time, I would hazard a guess and say that it IS
impossible. The best you can do is minimize your risks, which is what
turning everything off, as you suggest, does.

The only perfect computer security is to isolate your machine (no
wires anywhere from your machine to the outside world), lock it in a
vault, and have armed guards around it 24/7. Even then...

So, the short answer to your question is, yes, it is possible that
someone could crack your system, even with all the daemons turned
off. Is it likely? Depends on what you have on that system and how bad
somebody wants to get at it and how many people know about it. I doubt
any cracker's going to spend hours breaking in to the average users
system.

Gary