Open relays and open proxies

Fri Apr 25 14:48:15 UTC 2003

Daniel Concepcion wrote:

> 
> The big problem in dDoS are the smurf, virus and trojans. Generally every 
> machine infected have an open proxy. But the open proxy itself isn't 
> dangerous. They are only use as intermediate hop for attack machines or 
> control other trojans. 
> 

This is true for dDoS, but service denial is only one security concern. 
The proxies are often used to a) cloak originating source during 
dictionary and exploit attempts and b) circumvent security when the 
system with the proxy happens to be a "trust" system (it does happen).

-Jack