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Legality of port scanning

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Comments

  • #32
    Draco
    Subscribers Posts: 1,911 ✭✭✭Draco


    Originally posted by sam:
    actually there are legitimate uses for portscanning, but as i said before, it all depends on what the circumstances are, and your motive for portscanning
    B]
    Not when you don't own the machine.
    What possible legitimate reason would you have?

    Draco



  • #33
    sam
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 285 ✭✭sam


    suppose you didnt know what computer your isp ran an smtp server on, you could scan port 25 on some machines to see if they offered the service, eg. www.esatclear.ie

    or maybe your isp's one was down, and you were looking for any random one, you might scan 'likely' targets, eg. mail.yahoo.com, to see if they offered the service

    [This message has been edited by sam (edited 22-06-2000).]


  • #34
    spod
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 332 ✭✭spod


    Originally posted by sam:
    suppose you didnt know what computer your isp ran an smtp server on, you could scan port 25 on some machines to see if they offered the service, eg. www.esatclear.ie

    or maybe your isp's one was down, and you were looking for any random one, you might scan 'likely' targets, eg. mail.yahoo.com, to see if they offered the service

    [This message has been edited by sam (edited 22-06-2000).]

    I really don't see why this needs a full port scan, surely telnet possiblehost:25 is all that's necessary
    as opposed to checking to see the full list of open ports on the host...

    Anyway, to add my two cents, port scanning probably is or should be illegal, but there's not much you can do about it in terms of enforcement etc.
    http://freepaul.org/ is a pretty amusing read, it's a student in California State university student who is getting in a bit of hassle with his college for port scanning a bunch of machines from his dorm. Seemingly it's a criminal offence in california, to portscan a machine which you don't have permission to access.

    I'm not sure if it's illegal here, but, it probably is in some form or other, however actually doing anything about it is another matter.

    yawn



  • #35
    anonym00se
    Closed Accounts Posts: 60 ✭✭anonym00se


    Originally posted by spod:
    I really don't see why this needs a full port scan, surely telnet possiblehost:25 is all that's necessary
    as opposed to checking to see the full list of open ports on the host...

    Now that is grand if you are checking maybe one or 2 hosts, but any more and a port scan along the lines of:

    nmap -sS -p 25 4.0.0.1/1 would do the trick and be a hell of alot quicker, granted though this example is going to take a hell of a long time :)


  • #36
    spod
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 332 ✭✭spod


    I reckon fyodor must have a binary representation of his kitchen sink buried in that code somewhere....


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  • #37
    sam
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 285 ✭✭sam


    you people are missing the point, it should only be illegal if it can be proved the motive for portscanning was malicious, it should not be illegal if the motive was not malicious

    portscanning means scanning a port, doesnt mean you have to scan all ports


  • #38
    anonym00se
    Closed Accounts Posts: 60 ✭✭anonym00se


    Originally posted by sam:
    portscanning means scanning a port, doesnt mean you have to scan all ports

    No no I got the point you were getting at :)
    hence my example which would scan 128 class A's for an open port 25 (and nothing more).



  • #39
    anonym00se
    Closed Accounts Posts: 60 ✭✭anonym00se


    Originally posted by spod:
    I reckon fyodor must have a binary representation of his kitchen sink buried in that code somewhere....

    Can we take it from that, that you dont like or think that nmap is bloatware?



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