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Date:      Mon, 24 Jan 2005 16:10:55 -0600
From:      John <john@starfire.mn.org>
To:        Colin Alston <karnaugh@karnaugh.za.net>
Cc:        Hexren <me@hexren.net>
Subject:   Re: sshd port number ?
Message-ID:  <20050124161055.B6072@starfire.mn.org>
In-Reply-To: <41F56590.1070303@karnaugh.za.net>; from karnaugh@karnaugh.za.net on Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 11:16:00PM %2B0200
References:  <20050124210109.GA14171@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG> <12318458361.20050124221023@hexren.net> <41F56590.1070303@karnaugh.za.net>

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On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 11:16:00PM +0200, Colin Alston wrote:
> Hexren wrote:
> 
> >> How does that make sshd less secure if its on a port above                                
> >> 1024 ?  
> >If ssh ever goes down, a user could start his own compromised
> >version of ssh and do some nasty stuff. The same user could not do
> >that if the connecting side would expect sshd to be on a privileged
> >port because the system ensures that only procs running with superuser
> >privileges can bind to a privileged port.
> >  
> >
> And to note, ports <1024 are what we reffer to as "privileged ports", ie 
> - only root, or processes running as root, can open/close/mess them.

OK, but this only applies to secury and well-managed systems.
Early versions of Windows did nothing to restrict the use of ports
below 1024, and any hacker out there with a Linux or FreeBSD box
can start any service he likes to listen on a port below 1024, or
have an application run to open a connection on a port below 1024.

I'm sure the writer was aware of this - I just want to make sure
that newcomers and lurkers don't put too much confidence in the
port number of a connection.
-- 

John Lind
john@starfire.MN.ORG



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