Re: Discover machines on local network

dk wrote:
Is there a quick and simple way to discover what machines might be connected
on a local network? This is actually for a plot point in a novel I'm
writing.

A character breaks into a server room. She can see 10 servers in a rack plus
a desktop machine. The desktop machine is running Linux. What's the easiest
way for her to discover the IP of that machine? (I assume she's not got
root access, so can't run ifconfig). And what's the easiest way to find the
IPs of the other machines? Nmap? Just pinging addresses in the same range
as the desktop machine? Or is there an easier way?


Since asking in a Suse group, try multicast :-)
Won't work for Windows by default!

ping 224.0.0.1 gives all (linux) hosts on network


--
For network on local host
/sbin/ifconfig -a

gives all there is to tell being non-root.

--

However if you have 10 servers in a rack and a desktop computer
used for monitoring, the servers may not be connected to the desktop using IP addresses.

Servers often have their console redirected to the serial console (*), thus the desktop computer may run 10 minicoms one attached to each server.

If one of the minicom sessions is left with a login session open -
you either need to allow it to be a root session or know the root/administrator password for the server in question.

This will be a very sloppy securety level for production servers.
However not unlikely in developement/testing networks as these often
are disconnected from any other networks.

../Preben
(*) Do not know if this applies to Window based servers!



As on how to "down" a server being non root:
You might get away with running a fork bomb, but this leaves
evidence...

You can have her doing omething like....

$cat fork_bomb1

#!/bin/bash

sleep (seconds need to get away)

../fork_bomb2
rm fork_bomb1



$cat fork_bomb2

#!/bin/bash

../fork_bomb2 &

while 1; do
sleep 1
done


---
This will _not_ down your machine, but if you have skills, you figure out what needs to be changed to "down" a machine as intended....

Please do not post a working script, no need to give away ammo away for the clueless.


../Preben





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