Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 10:12:39 +1000 From: Peter Jeremy <jeremyp@gsmx07.alcatel.com.au> To: tom@uniserve.com Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: softupdates in latest build? Message-ID: <99Sep7.101043est.40337@border.alcanet.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9909061247400.13016-100000@shell.uniserve.ca>
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Tom <tom@uniserve.com> wrote: >On Mon, 6 Sep 1999, Brad Knowles wrote: >> I have reason to believe that it is possible to sniff through >> switches, at least certain types of switches. > > No. That's a bit simplistic. Most switches are designed to reduce network traffic, not provide security. They have a finite capacity for learnt MAC addresses and if you exceed that limit, traffic will leak onto multiple segments. Likewise, traffic may leak whilst a switch is learning a new MAC address or under high traffic loads. Therefore, snooping on a switched segment may provide a small sample of the 'backbone' traffic. Whether this is a problem depends on the site. Of course, given a poorly configured 'managed' switch, somethe subverted host could change the switch configuration to provide a drop copy of the backbone traffic... Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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