I share Lynn's sense of puzzlement about just what you are trying to protect here. He is correct that the etc.lrp file on a LEAF router is not particularly vulnerable to remote theft, unless the thief already has root privileges on the LEAF router or the router is running a service with a serious security hole. I surmise that you are concerned about someone who has physical access to the router and can copy the file directly from the boot floppy (or other boot medium).

The sad reality is that it is almost impossible to secure any standard PC against an attack by somebody who has physical access to it. In the immediate example, far easier than cracking root's password on the floppy would be substituting a fresh /etc/shadow file in etc.lrp (or even supplying a completely fresh etc.lrp package).

In general, the best way to fight "brute force" password crackers is to pick hard-to-guess passwords ... good, unpatterned ones of the sort that all the references recommend.


At 03:39 PM 3/10/2003 -0600, Lynn Avants wrote:
On Monday 10 March 2003 02:51 pm, Heriberto H�hlke wrote:
> Hello
>
> I usually open .lrp files with Winzip81 in Windows 98, renaming them to
> *.tgz, except initrd.lrp, that can't be opened. I would like to protect the
> password file of etc.lrp from been cracked with Brute Force crackers like
> John The Ripper.
> Is there a way for backing up the .lrp files, so they cannot be opened (as
> initrd.lrp), except from inside the Bering box, and of course knowing the
> root password?

How would anyone be able to crack your password file without logging in
as 'root'? Really the only security concerns to the outside you would have
would be dependant on opening http/ftp/etc... services open to the internet
and running on the router itself. If this is a large concern of yours, I would
suggest moving these services off the router and into a DMZ.
--
~Lynn Avants
Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall Developer
http://leaf.sourceforge.net






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