Security Incidents mailing list archives
Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!!
From: Steve Stearns <sterno () GEMINI BIGBROTHER NET>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:32:23 -0500
On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, David Knapp wrote:
I had the same question - is port scanning legal in California? I was told that it is in fact illegal - see California Penal Code section 502(2)(c) - i believe for the specific wording.
IANAL but this law seems pretty badly worded, so the legality of port scanning would likely come down to the interpretation of a judge on how "permission" is granted. Section (c)(2) says that a person can be punished who "knowingly accesses and WITHOUT PERMISSION [my emphasis] takes copies, or makes use of any data from a computer, computer system, or computer network, or takes or copies any supporting documentation, whether existing or residing internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network." Now, one could interpret that the information contained in a port scan effectively contained data from and about the computer system/network. If that scan was done without authorization, then you'd theoretically be in violation of this statute. Now, according to their definition, "access" effectively means initiating any communication with any part of the computer (read the statute if you want the exact wording), so merely connecting to a socket could be interpreted as "accessing". The problem as I see it is that by this definition, accessing the website on somebody's computer could be a violation of this statute because they don't bother to express in the statute how "permission" is given. One could argue that the website was put up for public access and thus permission is implied, but one could say the same thing about any service running on an internet connected system. If it is connected to the internet, it could be implied that it was intended to be publicly accessible. Of course I wouldn't want to put this law to test :) ---Steve
Current thread:
- ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! sec (Sep 12)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Jose Nazario (Sep 12)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Benjamin Krueger (Sep 12)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Robert G. Ferrell (Sep 12)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! David Knapp (Sep 13)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! UnixGeek (Sep 13)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Ryan Russell (Sep 14)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Greg A. Woods (Sep 14)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Rune Kristian Viken (Sep 17)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! UnixGeek (Sep 13)
- Re: ICMP mapping, questioning legality!! Steve Stearns (Sep 13)