Re: Yet another thread on the legality of port scanning

[Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers <bugtraq () planetcobalt net>]

On 2004-03-18 Charley Hamilton wrote:
> > On 2004-03-17 Charley Hamilton wrote:
> > > The "reasonable man" hypothesis applies to connecting to a system to
> > > which authorization is in doubt.  Would a reasonable man conclude that
> > > http://www.cnn.com is an acceptable connection in the absence of
> > > explicit permission?  I would say yes, he would. Would a reasonable
> > > man conclude that ftp://www.cnn.com is an acceptable connection in the
> > > absence of explicit permission? I would argue no, he would not.
> > > What's the difference?  HTTP is generally accepted to be a public
> > > connection, in the sense that it is intended as a shared resource, to
> > > be accessible to all.  FTP is not generally accepted as such,
> > > regardless of what electronic storefront happens to be offering the
> > > service.
> >
> > That's simply not true.
>
> I admit FTP was a poor choice.  Detailed response in reply to
> Barry Fitzgerald.  Were you also referring to something else?

It's just a hostname, nothing more, nothing less. In some cases the www
server doesn't even have the www-prefix. In other cases it's name is
chosen to represent its purpose (e.g. groups.google.com). So the
hostname does in no way tell you if you are permitted to use it or not.
But authentication does.

Regards
Ansgar Wiechers

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