Introduction:
Happy New Year to all!
Those of you who have been using computers for over 15 years should remember the "good old days" of file transfer which depended on serial cabling, modems and a small handful of communications protocols which could be used to transfer data between machines.
Unix shipped with UUCP (at least from v7) which allowed reliable remote command execution and file transfer. BSD variants of Unix eventually shipped with TCP/IP networking (foundation for the modern Internet). VAXs were running VMS and DECNet, but not UUCP or TCP/IP. And for DOS, those 360k floppies didn't allow for many options.
Before the wide-spread use of TCP/IP networking, one common way of sending files across different platforms was to use Kermit. Kermit's roots go back to Columbia University in 1981. It is both a communications protocol and file transfer program. Over the years it has been ported to just about every machine and operating system you can think of. Certain versions also come with extensive terminal emulation capabilities and have an advanced scripting language built in.
Modern Kermit versions support TCP/IP networking (among others) and can be used as a server for both serial and Internet communications. The freely available C-Kermit 7.x (which runs on many operating systems) and Kermit 95 (commercial product for win32) support Secure Telnet and FTP using Internet standard protocols for Authentication and Encryption such as Kerberos, SRP, and SSL/TLS.
Unigroup's January 2001 meeting will address the usage of Internet Security Protocols and Technologies from a development and implementation point of view.
Web Resources: -------------- 1. The Kermit Project http://www.kermit-project.org 2. C-Kermit Home http://www.kermit-project.org/ckermit.html 3. C-Kermit 7.1 Alpha http://www.kermit-project.org/ck71.html 4. Kermit Security Features http://www.kermit-project.org/security71.html 5. Internet Kermit Service http://www.kermit-project.org/cuiksd.html 6. Kermit Standards Reference Page http://www.kermit-project.org/standards.html 7. Kermit 95 (win32, commercial) http://www.kermit-project.org/k95 8. G-Kermit http://www.kermit-project.org/gkermit.html 9. MIT Kerberos http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www 10. Secure Remote Password http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~tjw/srp 11. OpenSSL http://www.openssl.org 12. IETF http://www.ietf.org
Giveaways:
Caldera
Description of Talk:
Jeffrey Altman, one of the primary authors of Kermit software from
Columbia University's Kermit Project and an active participant in the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), will present a talk on the
incorporation of security protocols and algorithms into an age old
communications product. Kermit is traditionally thought of as a
serial modem communications. However, it has been used as a telnet
client since the mid-80s and other protocols have been integrated
since. As the use of the Internet became increasingly popular, the
need to protect data transmissions increased as well.
The Kermit Project has worked with other Universities and
organizations such as the IETF to design and implement methods for
authenticating and protecting the communication sessions in Telnet,
Rlogin and FTP. The mechanisms implemented within Kermit include
Kerberos 4 and 5; Secure Remote Password protocol; and SSL/TLS (X.509
certificates). This talk will focus on the capabilities of Kermit;
the design of the Internet Kermit Service
Speaker Biography:
Jeffrey Altman is the Sr. Software Designer for Columbia University's
Kermit Project and Chief Technology Officer for IAM Training and
Consulting. He is currently the chairperson of the IETF Telnet
Security working group and has edited close to two dozen Internet
Drafts and RFCs. He is also a member of MIT's Kerberos development
group and actively contributes to the OpenSSL open source development
project and the Secure Remote Password (SRP) development effort.
Project Biography:
The Kermit Project
Post Meeting Notes:
Jeff has made his presentation available here. For the best viewing and printing, be sure to click the button up top which expands the text index into the full list of bullet items. Thanks again Jeff!
Complimentary Refreshments and Food will be served.
Please join us for this meeting, you won't want to miss it!
This now includes salads and sandwiches (eg. turkey, roast beef, chicken, tuna)!