Regarding root access to telnet

[Allen K. Smith]

On Wednesday 22 February 2006 10:26, Gavin McDonald wrote:
> agreed,
> 
> For proof, just run a sniffer on the network segment as you login as root,
> you will see, in plaintext, your root password.  (and any smtp passwords
> from mail clients, but that's a different problem... ;)  
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Gavin McDonald
> ========================
> EVI Logistic Enterprises
> email: me at gavitron.com
> phone: (604) 313-3845
> 
> 

And since there are easy to use tools to fool switches into letting you impersonate any host connected to that switch, a switch won't protect you from this kind of thing (or provide any security really).

mumble-mumble, poof. Now my workstation is the router for this network and I see all your plaintext passwords. Cackle. With a good IDS/switch management sw and someone watching logs, you might catch the bad person doing this.

-Allen