Re: Securely connecting to FTP

[BH <lists () blackhat bz>]

Hi,

On 25/10/2011 7:23 PM, Benjamin Betsalel wrote:
> SFTP on port 990(different protocol entirely-probably not
> supported by ISP I would guess.

That's correct, SFTP isn't FTP but it uses SSH as the transport. Try
this on port 22 or 2222 (common ports, could be running on any), but I
doubt that it will be enabled as most ISP's will not provide shell
access of any form any probably don't have an SCP only shell or similar
enabled. Most ISP's I know will have SSH firewalled off.

> 1) what are the implications of connecting FTP on port 21 with no encryption
> -
> my username and pass is sent plaintext to the server. Where can I or
> where would I worry about being MiTM'ed ? My own LAN connection being
> sniffed? any place inbetween my lan and the ISP server ?

Along with the username any file transfers can be captured. Is your LAN
really at risk of someone installing a device to capture traffic or does
someone have suffciant knowledge to do it software wise? I am assuming
as it is ISP webspace that this is a home environment.

Between your home and ISP I wouldn't say there is a risk, but then again
I have no idea what the situation is. The fact that in most places there
are very stiff penalties for doing this and the knowledge required would
deter most people. Is the traffic you are uploading to ISP webspace
really that important that someone would do this?

> 2) is it that smaller ISPs just don't provide this type of functionality, and you won't be able to encrypt while 
> using FTP?
> -
> that is, is a secure ftp connection a bit of a premium that you pay
> more for or need to look more specifically into other companies offering
> "secure ftp services.", or should there be no reason why one ISP would
> not be able to offer this service.

I would say that it is common, and the reasoning behind it I outline in
the first part of this. A much larger amount I would say use FTPS (FTP
over SSL), so make sure that you give that a go. Also, if they have a
web based control panel it could have a web based file manager of some
sort (it should be over SSL).

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