Hacking
 

Somebody showed me how they could connect by public FTP to a server download a password file and crack it with a DOS program. They told me this wasnt nothing compared to what some people can do with a shell or the people that can find security flaws in a script and hack thourgh it by a form on the website.
Is it true can anyone that knows their shit can hack anything?

but of course.

Nothing is 100% secure....

nothing is secure in these days

I dont understand why they would do it, what advantages can one obtain by taking over someone else's server

Check out <a href="http://www.atstake.com/">@stake</a> if you really wanna scare yourself. (Biz end of cult of the dead cow.)

It's really not that hard to secure a server reasonably. You should do your best to have your own dedicated machine, close off everything that you don't need in inetd (or turn off inetd completely). If you have apache, then you have port 80 open for webpages, thats fine. If you have ftp, like proftpd that opens port 21, make sure that you turn off anonymous logins, and even then limit users to their own home directory as root. Use SSH, not something like telnet, etc, if your really paranoid only allow SSH connections from your IP. Any user account you add, restrict it to only what they need (preferrably not SSH (take away their shell)) only allow them access to ftp, the list goes on but it's all common sense really. Restrict those who aren't you to the bare minimum they need, keep strong passwords (esp. root), close all ports that you don't have a use for, and keep up to date on exploits for services your running... :thumbsup

As long as data is being transffered bethwen two places. It will never be 100% secure.

nothing is secure, look at the preist they are so holy but even that was 'penetrated'


bunky

yes, kenny that is perfectly true and a very simple thing to do, and no server is secure, look at microsoft in the last year, or all the .gov's that have been hacked. i think there was some 30,000+ boxs hacked in 2001, just a little something to think about.

if you want some help securing your box hit me on icq 82667356, and ill tell you a few things that i know that may help. :)

If you want to find out what boxes that are hacked when, you
can check this site:
Zone-H.Org :thumbsup