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Telnet Randomly turns on
- Thread starter Me1000
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Telnet (incoming) is off by default on Mac OS X, are your sure you haven't turned it on?
Here's Apple's documentation about enabling Telnet access.
But using Telnet as a "client" is on. Sometimes you can use Telnet to configure your DSL modem, or network printers etc.
Maybe some software you have installed uses Telnet to connect to some network device...?
Here's Apple's documentation about enabling Telnet access.
But using Telnet as a "client" is on. Sometimes you can use Telnet to configure your DSL modem, or network printers etc.
Maybe some software you have installed uses Telnet to connect to some network device...?
Strange. If it were a backdoor on your Mac, the process would show as telnetd (the telnet server) rather than telnet. It worries me that this may be a process calling itself telnet, but not actually be the OSX telnet client. The built-in one should never get up to those CPU cycle levels.
The next time that you experience this problem, open a terminal window and type ps auxl
Then you'll see in the first column the user running the process (USER), the Process ID (PID), Parent Process ID(PPID) and command used to start it (COMMAND).
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TT STAT STARTED TIME UID PPID CPU PRI NI WCHAN COMMAND
Pick the PPID from the telnet process. This number will tell you which process started telnet. Type ps aux | grep <PPID of telnet> .
Tell us what process was starting telnet, ok?
Then you'll see in the first column the user running the process (USER), the Process ID (PID), Parent Process ID(PPID) and command used to start it (COMMAND).
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TT STAT STARTED TIME UID PPID CPU PRI NI WCHAN COMMAND
Pick the PPID from the telnet process. This number will tell you which process started telnet. Type ps aux | grep <PPID of telnet> .
Tell us what process was starting telnet, ok?
Mmm, it *is* strange. What do you have running on this Mac? The telnet process looks like it's owned by *YOU* in the first picture.... not that it couldn't be someone hacking you, but that seems unlikely. More likely is that you have some program or something that is launching a script periodically, and the telnet task is being invoked for some weird reason to act the script out.
Mail Widget?
I had a similar problem a while back. It turned out to be a mail widget that I used (and still use) that, for some reason, launched telnet. Usually it was terminated, but sometimes it remained. See if tapping F12 creates instances of telnet, that's how I realized it was connected with dashboard somehow.
I had a similar problem a while back. It turned out to be a mail widget that I used (and still use) that, for some reason, launched telnet. Usually it was terminated, but sometimes it remained. See if tapping F12 creates instances of telnet, that's how I realized it was connected with dashboard somehow.
Tinhead's is the most plausable.
A widget could easily generate Telnet traffic, and for the user still be "invisible"
Please check this possibility out, Me1000!
A widget could easily generate Telnet traffic, and for the user still be "invisible"
Please check this possibility out, Me1000!
Try tapping F12 repeatedly and rapidly, see if that makes telnet appear. It does not matter whether or not you have new mail in your inbox.
When I double click on the telnet app in the activity monitor the first line on "open files and ports" is
/Users/randy/Library/Widgets/MailWidget.wdgt
I removed the widget from dashboard, and restarted the dashboard with this widget
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/quitdock.html
but it is still running both cores at 100%
/Users/randy/Library/Widgets/MailWidget.wdgt
I removed the widget from dashboard, and restarted the dashboard with this widget
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/quitdock.html
but it is still running both cores at 100%
The PID 501 started the telnet (the PPID of telnet is 501) and telnet is consuming near 100% of your CPU time. But the listing doesn't have any PID with this number (501)
.The PID 501 started the telnet (the PPID of telnet is 501) and telnet is consuming near 100% of your CPU time. But the listing doesn't have any PID with this number (501)
501 is the UID of "randy", not the PID. 501 is the standard UID of the main user on Mac OS X. What is happening here is that the MailWidget uses telnet to communicate with POP and IMAP servers to enquire about email. This is mainly due to the fact that the program is poorly written.
However, the important thing is it's nothing nefarious. I.e. its not a hack/exploit or virus.