Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!aecom!naftoli From: naftoli@aecom.yu.edu (Robert N. Berlinger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: Ethernet security Message-ID: <2424@aecom.yu.edu> Date: 29 Aug 89 14:00:31 GMT References: <3956@phri.UUCP> Organization: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY Lines: 35 In article , hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) writes: > ... You've got exactly the same exposure with > an RS232 wire as an Ethernet: anybody who taps it will see everything > on it. In fact it probably requires less sophisticated equipment to > watch an RS232 line than an Ethernet... I agree with you on general terms that an Ethernet user cannot expect complete security, but then neither can an RSR232 point-to-point user. However, I don't agree that the risks are the same. Tapping an RS232 often means tracing it, physically breaking it open and monitoring. These things can apply to Ethernet too. But it's just as often the case that the Ethernet cable is handed on a silver platter to the potential snoop (run through his/her office). And the Ethernet may well have been tapped already and connected to the back of their system. In fact, that's the basis for Ethernet in the first place! Now all that is needed is some appropriate software to snoop, and can be done from the convenience of their office, undetected, with no physical evidence to prove malintent. Just about every PC NIC out there supports promiscuous mode, so the hardware to build X amount of Ethernet snoopers on every net is already out there. So I think the risks and nature of Ethernet snooping are not the same as point-to-point links, but I agree that there are risks in point-to-point as well, which can't be ignored when weighing the risks/benefits. -- Robert N. Berlinger |Domain: naftoli@aecom.yu.edu Supervisor of Systems Support |UUCP: {uunet}!aecom!naftoli Scientific Computing Center |CompuServe: 73047,741 GEnie: R.Berlinger Albert Einstein College of Medicine |Pan: berlinger AppleLink: U0995