Sniffing the Internet

Presented by Stephen Crocker/Trusted Information Systems

Biography:  Steve Crocker has been Vice President of Trusted Information
Systems since 1986.  He is responsible for research and development in
network security, integration of cryptography and trusted systems,
privacy enchanced mail, and program verification.  He served as IETF
Area Director for Security from 1989 until 1994 and is now a member of
the Internet Architecture Board.  Steve's past positions include:
Director of Computer Science Laboratory at the Aerospace Corporation, El
Segundo, Senior Research Associate, USC Information Sciences Institute
and R&D Program Manager, DARPA/ISTO.


During 1993 and early 1994 a number of systems were penetrated around
the Internet, and the penetrators installed programs to capture all
Ethernet packets on those machines' LANs.  The packets were scanned for
account names and passwords.  Some of the penetrated machines were on
transit networks inside of network service providers.  The captured data
included names and passwords for accounts on machines physically and
organizationally very distant from the penetrated machines.  For
example, data captured in New England pertained to systems in
California, Europe and elsewhere.

These events were taken up in a hearing before the US House of
Representatives subcommittee on Science, chaired by Representative Rick
Boucher.  These incidents make it clear that it is no longer appropriate
to transmit passwords in the clear on the Internet and that a
challenge/response or other eavesdrop-proof authentication scheme should
be used for remote access.