| O MORE ON TELNET OK, so you want to get legal user names and passwords so you can telnet into other computers. Here are some of the best ways: See http://happyhacker.org/links2.shtml#shells for organizations that will give you free shell accounts. You can telnet into these. Ask Internet Service Providers for shell accounts. Some offer them, although most don't. Set up a telnet server on your own computer (see instructions below). Yes, once you are running a telnet server, you can telnet from your computer back into your computer. Simply give the command "telnet 127.0.0.1". Make friends with people who run Internet computers with telnet servers. Why you May Not Want to Telnet If you love your shell account server, don't ever, ever telnet or ftp into it. I recommend Ssh or Openssh for logging into remote computers? The telnet (and ftp) protocol is a "clear text" transmission. That means that computer on the same LAN as either You or your destination computer, or any computer on any LAN or network path through which your connection passes can steal your login name, password or anything else that goes across your connection. Ssh and OpenSsh encrypt all communications so no one can snoop on you. How to Install a Telnet Server on your Windows Computer Usually you can't telnet into a Windows home computer. The reason is, they aren't running telnet servers. Here's how to get a telnet server on your home Windows computers so your friends and you can telnet in and play. For Windows NT, the Options Pack includes a primitive telnet server. For Windows 95/98/NT and 2000, you also can install shareware or commercial telnet servers. Check out http://www.winfiles.com, or do a web search. Of course installing a telnet server makes your computer vulnerable to all sorts of trouble from hackers. It's your funeral, don't come crying top me if a telnet visitor destroys your computer. How to Turn off a Telnet Server on your Unix-type Computer If you go online with Linux or other Unix-type computer, a telnet server is the easiest way to ensure you get destroyed by a malicious hacker. Here's how to prevent this. On most of these, the file /etc/inetd.conf launches most of your servers. Edit the file to put a "#" in front of the line that has telnet in it and either reboot your computer or kill and restart inetd. If your computer doesn't use inetd to launch services, you should be able to find telnetd under /etc/init.d. Install ssh instead and only use that to log into your shell account. How to Explore Computers Using Telnet Even if a computer doesn't have a telnet server, there are lots of fun and even legal things to do to it using telnet. The easiest thing to do is extract "banners" from a victim computer. A banner is a message a computer will often give when you telnet to a port that is running an Internet server of some sort. For example, most mail sending servers use port 25. To telnet to port 25 from Win 2000 or a Unix shell, simply type: telnet <hostname or IP address> 25 More on Telnet: the Number One Hacker Tool A quick search of the Bugtraq archives at http://www.securityfocus.com revealed horrid things a criminal could do to that Mercur mail server. Since I think it is more fun to be nice, I told someone at the company using this mail server about the problems. He invited me to vacation at his beautiful Swiss home, where he and his wife keep horses and take long trail rides in the Alps. Golly, that is much more fun than breaking into a computer! Right about now some elite ueberhaxorz are probably reading this and saying "What a lamer Meinel is! We can do the same thing by running nmap." They are right, you can learn the same things by running a port scanning program such as nmap (available at http://www.insecure.org). However, I am quite careful about under what circumstances I run any port scanner. In order to get information on what programs are running on what ports, you must run a port scanner in a mode that will probably convince the owner of the victim computer that you are a criminal. He or she may persuade your online service provider to cancel your account. The other reason to analyze computers using telnet is that you learn more. It's the difference between eating at McDonalds and learning how to cook. How to Break into Web Sites Using Telnet You don't have to use a web browser to access files on a web site. All you need to do is: telnet <victimcomputer> 80 Or specify port 80 in a Windows telnet. If you are using Windows 95/98/NT, whenever you are NOT logging into a telnet account, you should enable local echo. Otherwise whatever you type in (unless you are in a telnet account) will not show on the screen. To enable local echo, click Terminal --> Preferences --> Local Echo. MORE AGAIN CLICK HERE |