[GLLUG] telnet

[Rich Clark]

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Todd Torrey wrote:

> I have (supposedly), a telnet server running on one of my computers. When I 
> try to connect to it, I get the following message:
> 
>      [root at localhost todd]# telnet 192.168.1.200
>      Trying 192.168.1.200...
>      Connected to 192.168.1.200.
>      Escape character is '^]'.
>      telnetd: All network ports in use.
>      Connection closed by foreign host.
>      [root at localhost todd]#

Please tell me this box is not exposed to the Internet without a firewall 
between it and the world.

> xinetd is running on the host in question, but why am I not connecting.
> Here is xinetd.conf:
> 
>      [root at localhost etc]# cat xinetd.conf
>      #
>      # Simple configuration file for xinetd
>      #
>      # Some defaults, and include /etc/xinetd.d/
> 
>      defaults
>      {
>              instances               = 60
>              log_type                = SYSLOG authpriv
>              log_on_success          = HOST PID
>              log_on_failure          = HOST
>      }
> 
>      includedir /etc/xinetd.d
> 
> Here is the telnet config:
> 
>      [root at localhost xinetd.d]# cat telnet
>      # default: on
>      # description: The telnet server serves telnet sessions; it uses \
>      #       unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
>      service telnet
>      {
>              flags           = REUSE
>              socket_type     = stream
>              wait            = no
>              user            = root
>              server          = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
>              log_on_failure  += USERID
>              disable         = no
>      }
> 
> I must be missing something stupid

Telnet is so insecure.  SSH would be a much better option, even inside a 
private network at home or where ever.  

To see what's going on, you may want to execute 'netstat -a | grep telnet'
and see what's connected to that box, if anything.

Rich
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