Telnet to Web Server?

Thu Jun 12 17:19:10 CDT 2008

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 5:05 PM, Greg Lawson
<glawson at rollinghills.lib.mo.us> wrote:
> Is it necessarily considered poor web server configuration to be able to
> telnet into a webserver and pull off the server info? For example, if you
> telnet to this site (and many others I've tested too):
>
> www.missouriwestern.edu (port 80)
>
> --then do a "get /"
>
> you will get the server info and the html from the website. So is that good,
> bad, neither, unavoidable?

Neither, Webserver (is a server), you are connecting with telnet
(client). So if you know the right sequence you can "get" the HTML
page just like your Browser. Its a typical client/server setup. You
can do mail this way too (but isn't recommended).

$ telnet www.missouriwestern.edu 80
Trying 150.200.1.30...
Connected to www.missouriwestern.edu.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET / HTTP/1.1 <-----------------I typed this, then two <CR> in a row

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:17:43 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
Content-Length: 15388
Content-Type: text/html
Cache-control: private
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDCQADCCQT=JPNLMKEAJHKFIOAHOIIBHLDE; path=/
Connection: Keep-Alive

<html>
<head>
<title>Missouri Western State University (MWSU)</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="Missouri Western State
University,colleges,missouri colleges,colleges in missouri,saint
joseph,undergraduate degrees,missouri education,MWSU,midwest
colleges,liberal arts,technology,missouri universities,undergraduate
programs,continuing education,distance education, graduate
studies,masters" />
<meta name="description" content="Missouri Western State University
(MWSU) is a four-year, state-supported institution providing a blend
of traditional liberal arts and career-oriented degree programs. The
college offers one-year certificates, two-year associate, four-year
baccalaureate and master of applied science degrees." />
<meta name="verify-v1" content="AUqLBGmV+/qdmo2pkW37Ulxtn3lCMC3rYvjQIaQ3lUI=" />
<link href="http://www.missouriwestern.edu/CSS/mwscStyle.css"
rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="http://www.missouriwestern.edu/favicon.ico">
<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.missouriwestern.edu/mainmenu.js"></script>
<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.missouriwestern.edu/mm_menu.js"></script>
</head>