Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A honeypot is a computer system or software intended to attract hostile activity such as cracking or spamming, by masquerading as a vulnerable system. It is a computer security tool used to gather information about attackers and their techniques. Honeypots can distract adversaries from more valuable machines on a network, they can provide early warning about new attack and exploitation trends and they allow in-depth examination of adversaries during and after exploitation of a honeypot. A honeypot is also a fake website or chatroom set up to trap users with other criminal intent, e.g. regarding child pornography, as in Operation Pin. Spam Honeypots Spammers are known to abuse vulnerable resources such as open mail relays and open proxies. Some system administrators have created honeypot programs which masquerade as these abusable resources in order to discover the activities of spammers. Open relay honeypots include Jackpot, written in Java, and smtpot.py, written in Python. The term "honeypot" is believed to come from the Winnie the Pooh stories, in which Pooh finds himself stuck inside a pot of honey which he intended to eat. Security Honeypots Programs such as Fred Cohen's Deception Toolkit masquerade as vulnerable network services. When an attacker connects to a service and attempts to break in, they simulate weakness but do not allow the attacker to actually gain control of the system. By logging the attacker's activity, such a system gathers information about the attacks being used, as well as the attacker's own IP address and other information. The Honeynet Project is a research project deploying networks of honeypot systems ("honeynets") to gather extensive information about "the tools, tactics, and motives" of computer criminals. Spam Honeypots Spammers are known to abuse vulnerable resources such as open mail relays and open proxies. Some system administrators have created honeypot programs which masquerade as these abusable resources in order to discover the activities of spammers. Open relay honeypots include Jackpot, written in Java, and smtpot.py, written in Python. External Links Honeypots, Intrusion Detection, and Incident Handling Resources A honeypot is another name for the plant king protea. In geography, a honeypot is a particularly popular attraction within a managed tourist area, such as a National Park. Examples include Malham Cove, in the Yorkshire Dales, England, and Old Faithful in Yellowstone, USA. Honeypot sites are often encouraged because they concentrate the damage caused by tourists on small sites, making conservation easier in other parts of the managed area. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.