Ensure telnet server services are not in use

HighLevel 1Automatedfreebsd

Description

The freebsd-telnetd package contains the telnet daemon, which accepts connections from users from other systems via the telnet protocol. The telnet protocol is insecure and unencrypted. The use of an unencrypted transmission medium could allow a user with access to sniff network traffic the ability to steal credentials. The ssh service provides an encrypted session and stronger security. Audit: telnet must not be enabled in /etc/inetd.conf (or freebsd-telnetd is not installed).

How it is checked

Audit method: Shell command

shell

command -v grep >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 1; out=$( { grep -E "^telnet[[:space:]]" /etc/inetd.conf ; } 2>/dev/null ); [ -z "$out" ] && echo compliant || printf '%s\n' "$out" | head -n 20

Expected output: compliant

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

Run the following commands to stop and disable telnet: # sed -i '' -e 's|^telnet|#telnet|g' /etc/inetd.conf # service inetd restart -AND- -IF- a package is installed and is required for dependencies: Run the following commands to remove the freebsd-telnetd package: # pkg remove freebsd-telnetd

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: freebsdnetwork
Reference: CIS FreeBSD 14 Benchmark v1.0.1 - 2.2.8 Ensure telnet server services are not in use

Check this host

Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.

shell

tmaegis scan --target freebsd