Hackers looking forward to a merry Christmas

Be on your guard, not all surprises this Christmas will be welcome, particularly if you run a Unix system...

By Pia Heikkila, 17 December 2001 16:15

NEWS The US-based Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert) has advised system administrators to check any holes in Unix systems running Secure Shell (SSH) are plugged before Christmas because of an expected increase in hacker activity. Cert said although vulnerabilities in several implementations of the SSH protocol have been discovered before and patches issued, the team believes many system administrators might have overlooked some of the vulnerabilities. A statement from Cert said: "We are seeing a high amount of scanning for SSH daemons (programs which handle requests), and we are receiving reports of exploitation." SSH is widely used for secure remote terminal connections and file transfers between a client and a server running Unix. SSH tools are available for free by the OpenBSD project and sold by vendors such as SSH Communications Security and F-Secure.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Log in or create your silicon.com account below

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy.

Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Membership FAQ