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PC Auditing Tools a Double EdgedSword?
posted by scubacuda on Thursday August 07, @12:03PM
from the i'm-feeling-lucky dept.
Security Ever wonder how some "hackers" know a little too much about your company's network architecture? With PC auditing tools (like Belarc) that scan and convert to HTML the info on your computers, it's only a matter of time before these audit results are picked up by Google.

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    PC Auditing Tools a Double EdgedSword? | Login/Create an Account | Top | 5 comments | Search Discussion
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    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
    sw keys (Score:1, Funny)
    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07, @01:05PM (#980)
    it even lists their software keys:

    Adobe - Photoshop 104512096738466876962783

    Adobe Systems, Inc. - Adobe Photoshop 7.0 10451209673846687696XXXX

    Microsoft - Internet Explorer 55274-642-7769785-23419

    Microsoft - MediaPlayer 69808-448-8321716-04453

    Microsoft - Office XP Professional with FrontPage 54185-640-0000025-17696

    Microsoft - WebFldrs XP 12345-111-1111111-89813

    Microsoft - Windows XP Professional 55274-642-7769785-23419

    Symantec Corporation - Norton SystemWorks 2002 NSW2002.05
    Re:sw keys (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07, @08:07PM (#982)
    I may be missing something obvious, but if Belarc's description of the software is correct and none of the information gets transmitted off the home box, how are there so many Belarc reports spidered by Google? Did all of these people just accidentally copy Belarc's report into directories accessible via port 80? I don't know how web servers work on Windows(my Windows box is behind a NAT that DMZs all incoming traffic to the Linux box), but I honestly can't imagine how this could happen unless there is something very fishy about Belarc. In Linux (apache) you would have to put the report into the /home/http directory before any search engine's site could find it.
    Re:sw keys (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08, @11:17AM (#991)
    It doesn't put it there automatically, you have to manually put that file there.

    The problem is that many people put that stuff up to show other people and forget to take it down.
    Re:sw keys (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08, @06:36PM (#1007)
    jeez. well then, anyone dumb enough to do that kind of deserves any exploit they invite, don't you think? I hardly think it's belarc's fault.

    Cool, but... (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08, @04:00PM (#1005)
    it seems like most of these people (only about 120) are showing off their rigs. The software keys are neat, though!

    Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. - Isaac Asimov

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