Very useful tool for evaluating open ports
I have come across this very useful tool for evaluating your open ports. An by default, Microsoft NT based systems (2000 & XP included) have tons of open ports. The tool is called DiamondCS OpenPorts and is available at their website.
The tool will spell out if you for example have open ports 80 (port 80 of course means that you have a web server running -- and you may not have known it) or 25 (port 25 is the SMTP mail port which means that your machine may very well be acting as an open relay for spammers to take advantage of).
I have been looking for a tool like this for a while. There are lots of tools out there that can test your ports over the Internet, but if you have a good firewall configuration, those tests will stop at the firewall and that does not take into account any possible "internal attacks". What I am really interested in is making sure the computer is secure (seriously, what happens if the computer is ever placed outside the firewall or is a laptop?).
Another very valuable (and free) tool is released by a company of former hackers turned legit (guess they needed jobs to pay the bills). The company name is Foundstone and their free tools are located under the Resources --> Free Tools section of their website. More specifically the program that scans open ports, allows you to close them, etc can be found here.
If you just have one machine at home with a Linksys Firewall/Router you could always go to Steve Gibson's GRC.com to test that machine or your home configuration. Just remember though, if you play with that tricky little "Advanced" tab and the DMZ or you have a laptop, your test from GRC.com needs to be rerun, because you no longer have the protection of your home firewall.
OK, gotta fly, this was supposed to be a quick note to myself about the OpenPorts software, not a tutorial on home firewalls. Till next time, keep your hands to yourself and you'll keep them out of the 'cuffs.
The tool will spell out if you for example have open ports 80 (port 80 of course means that you have a web server running -- and you may not have known it) or 25 (port 25 is the SMTP mail port which means that your machine may very well be acting as an open relay for spammers to take advantage of).
I have been looking for a tool like this for a while. There are lots of tools out there that can test your ports over the Internet, but if you have a good firewall configuration, those tests will stop at the firewall and that does not take into account any possible "internal attacks". What I am really interested in is making sure the computer is secure (seriously, what happens if the computer is ever placed outside the firewall or is a laptop?).
Another very valuable (and free) tool is released by a company of former hackers turned legit (guess they needed jobs to pay the bills). The company name is Foundstone and their free tools are located under the Resources --> Free Tools section of their website. More specifically the program that scans open ports, allows you to close them, etc can be found here.
If you just have one machine at home with a Linksys Firewall/Router you could always go to Steve Gibson's GRC.com to test that machine or your home configuration. Just remember though, if you play with that tricky little "Advanced" tab and the DMZ or you have a laptop, your test from GRC.com needs to be rerun, because you no longer have the protection of your home firewall.
OK, gotta fly, this was supposed to be a quick note to myself about the OpenPorts software, not a tutorial on home firewalls. Till next time, keep your hands to yourself and you'll keep them out of the 'cuffs.
posted by t001z at
8/03/2004 09:13:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home