Well, I after catching some psych machine probing I sent out the following mail, and got the subsequent response. I know other people have gotten port scans from the Psych Department, so I thought this would be apropos. jws ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 08:29:53 -0500 From: Gary W. Zuker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Joshua W. Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Unauthorized port probing >I received a port scan from the host pcf133.psy.utexas.edu. As to whether >this was malignantly done, or a misconfiguration on the part of the host, >I will leave to you. The appropriate line from my logs is below (my clock >is about ten minutes slow): >--------- >Feb 27 15:54:23 (none) abacus_sentry[346]: attackalert: Connect from host: >pcf133.psy.utexas.edu/128.83.210.133 to TCP port: 161 --- I have spent al little time on the PCF133 computer, and talking to the person who uses it. I do not believe there is any foul play involved, but a mis-configuration. It's a Win98 machine used by a very non-technical grad student who inherited the computer from a previous student. When I go the "Network Neighborhood" I don't see any of our normal departmental printers and servers, but I do see something called " HP Printer Network" (which I have never seen before). When I click on this HP thing I get a long list of a hundred or more HP printers. Some of the printer-names make it clear that they belong to other departments around campus. I suspect that the previous user installed every piece of software supplied on the CD that came with their HP-5M printer. This probably included some "administrative tools" that allows him to probe the net for HP printers responders. It's just a theory, but it fits the facts. Since it seems benign, one of these days I'll look into UN-installing it to avoid problems like this in the future. Sorry for waisting your time. I understand a certain ammount of paranoia regarding suspicious network traffic is a healthy thing. _________________________________________ Gary W. Zuker Computer Specialist Department of Psychology B3800 University of Texas at Austin Austin, Tx. 78712 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone (512)475-9734 Fax: (512)471-5935 _________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send administrative requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
