Today, Benjamin Scott gleaned this insight:
> On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Randy Edwards wrote:
>
> > So what I was wondering is what are the rules of net etiquette about port
> > scans. In short, how do others perceive and react to them?
>
> There doesn't appear to be wide-spread agreement on netiquette with regards
> to ping probes, port scans and the like.
>
> Ultimately, if you're running a publicly connected host, you cannot
> reasonable expect to never be contacted. People with absolutely no hostile
> intent may simply type a hostname or IP address wrong, or think you're a
> public server for one reason or another. In particular, if you're running an
> anonymous FTP or HTTP server, you can't expect people not to come looking.
[Lots of snip-snippety snipping]
> Someone connecting to an anonymous service is again like trying the handle.
> You can't really expect this not to happen. On the other hand, someone trying
> to login as "root", trying various known exploits, or other things like that
> is definitely hostile. It's like someone trying all your windows (no pun
> intended) to see if you left one unlocked. Call the cops (contact their ISP)
> or chase them away (ban their IP).
My sentiments exactly. Even if you believe port scanning is eeevil, I say
let the punnishment fit the crime. What was hurt by the port scan?
Nothing. So what should the punnishment be? Nothing. Only after going
beyond that point and actually making attempts to break in, should one get
riled up. Not to say you shouldn't watch activity from that IP more
closely...
--
PGP/GPG Public key at http://cerberus.ne.mediaone.net/~derek/pubkey.txt
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Derek D. Martin | Unix/Linux Geek
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