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If somehow an intruder becomes aware of the IP address of my system:

  1. What information can he obtain from my system or about my network?
  2. What type of harm he can do to my system remotely?
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    Not really a programming question.
    – David Neale
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 12:48
  • This is server fault, not stackoverflow - so a valid question.
    – dunxd
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 13:22
  • Post your IP address here and find out. >:-)
    – Jonathan J
    Commented Nov 8, 2011 at 6:04

3 Answers 3

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Anything, and yes I do mean it, between everything and nothing. Completely depending on the security of your system.

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    If you mean your public IP, then approx location (infosniper.net) and hostname. If you configured your own domain and have a WHOIS record, then possibly your name, address, telephone number, business name etc. Probably your ISP (webmasterworld.com/forum10/9021.htm). If you have a public profile on the web and this can be reliably tied to your name and location, then anything in the profile, including what you look like. So I agree with this answer.
    – 52d6c6af
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 13:00
  • For example: a portscan can reveal: open ports, blocked ports, what operating system/version you use, versions of daemons you run. Figuring out the OS and specific software to target would help an attacker choose attacks with a higher chance of success.
    – Shizzmo
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 14:59
  • Wow amazing how an answer that provides zero information can be up voted so much.
    – Rook
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 19:24
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  • Directly, a port scan can give many technical informations and/or denial of service.

  • Indirectly, Whois database can give administrative informations which can be injected into Google to get other data potentially useful for intruders.

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  • +1 Yes, a port scan is way useful. It looks like no one else on this thread knows what this means.
    – Rook
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 19:25
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It depends on the configuration of your system. For example, if you had a wide open router and ISP, and had certain services running (VNC, Remote Desktop, Telnet, SSH, FTP, SFTP, etc.) and the attacker could guess the password (or the password was disabled), they would have full access to everything on your machine which your account has access to.

However, if you have a default router setup like your ISP gave you, and you don't enable any special services, then the IP is most likely worthless to an attacker unless there is a vulnerability in your operating system.

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