Arch Linux

dyscoria

Member

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 1,007

What exactly can be hacked?

At the moment, I run a simple iptables rule-set (from the wiki - disabling forwarding and incoming connections I didn't start myself). If I don't run any servers or ssh or anything like that, what exactly can an attacker do if they get past the firewall?

I assume at the moment that nothing can be done until the attacker cracks my user password or root password. That's what i'm hoping anyway. Even with ports open, can an attacker do something prior to cracking a password?

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flack 2.0.6: menu-driven BASH script to easily tag FLAC files (AUR)
knock-once 1.2: BASH script to easily create/send one-time sequences for knockd (forum/AUR)

F

Member

Registered: 2006-10-09

Posts: 322

Re: What exactly can be hacked?

Realize that hacking is not simply cracking passwords. Sometimes bypassing passwords altogether is possible...

Last edited by F (2008-02-28 11:46:56)

wuischke

Member

From: Suisse Romande

Registered: 2007-01-06

Posts: 630

Re: What exactly can be hacked?

Provided your firewall has no bugs, I think there's nothing they can do. When you have no services running, there's nothing which is listening on your system. (Use nmap to see if you have e.g. portmap enabled) and then there's nothing an attacker could interact with.

If you have any other server systems running (maybe cups?) and people could somehow interact with the service, they could try to abuse any bugs in the software with the aim to execute code on your system. If you allow ssh, then they have the additional chance of gaining access by somehow using your login data.