Interacting with Remote Systems
Inspecting FTP packets
If we capture the FTP session in Wireshark on port 21 of the public network
interface, then we can see how the communication happens in plain-text. This will
show you why SFTP should be preferred. In the following figure, we can see that,
after successfully establishing connection with a client the server sends the banner
message: 220 Welcome to kernel.org. Following this, the client will anonymously
send a request for login. In response, the server will ask for a password. The client
can send the user's e-mail address for authentication.
To your surprise, you can see that the password has been sent in clear-text. In the
following screenshot, the contents of the password packet have been displayed. It
shows the supplied fake e-mail address, [email protected].