remote access

[David Veatch]

Is it true that if you're using the Linux operating system,
and your computer is connected to the internet, others can access your computer,
including copying files from your hard drive, etc. This seems undesirable
to me. Apparently this isn't possible with Windows.

[Neil Matthew & Rick Stones]

Hi,

David Veatch <DavidVeatch@aol.com> wrote in message
news:395b7941$1@news.devx.com...
>
> Is it true that if you're using the Linux operating system,
> and your computer is connected to the internet, others can access your
computer,
> including copying files from your hard drive, etc. This seems undesirable
> to me. Apparently this isn't possible with Windows.

As is often the case with questions like this the
answer is neither "yes" or "no". More "it depends".

It is true that many default Linux installations have
access to terminal sessions via telnet enabled on the
network, as Linux often runs on local networks.

To gain unauthorised access to a Linux machine by this
route you need to know a user account name and its password.
You need to make sure that every user maintains a secret
password.

However, superuser (administrator) access is usually disabled
on network connections, so the damage is limited to what
a normal user can do (not very much on a good Linux install).

Services such as telnet, file transfer, file sharing and so
on are easily configured to be unavailable from certain network
addresses - including the whole of the Internet. Most Linux
distributions disable everything except telnet by default.

For more information on Linux security check out the Linux
Administrator's Security Guide.
www.securityportal.com/lasg/

Windows on the other hand is also vulnerable if mis-configured.
A Windows PC that has File and Printer Sharing enabled for
the TCP/IP protocol can be attacked, possibly allowing files
to be read and written.

Neil and Rick