How Much and What Kind of Information is OK to Put Out to the Forums/World?

happydog500 · 01-03-2017, 06:38 PM

In a forum, I was asked to post the results of

Code:

"inxi -Fxz"

What a command!! That one gave out a lot of information! I wasn't sure I wanted to post all of that to the forums and the world. It gave everything I could think of about my computer, even the "ports" used.

With the inxi -Fxz command, could someone use that to do harm? I've seen in other threads, replies that they told the person it's not good to post a certain part, but don't know what is the bad parts.

What command results are OK to post and what information should not be posted?

Thank you for the replies,
Chris.

Keith Hedger · 01-03-2017, 07:10 PM

you should usually sanitize any output from system commands before posting, usually just removing ip address's, email's etc, just use a bit of common sense, it's not gonna do you any harm to post what cpu you have, but nevet post your email thats just asking for agro

frankbell · 01-03-2017, 07:12 PM

You could start by reading the man page on inxi to see what information that might divulge. I gather it is a hardware diagnostic--generic hardware information is unlikely to open a vector for attack.

For my own part, I tend to obscure user names, email addresses, and other personally identifiable information, as for example

Code:

/home/[username]
[somebody]@[somewhere or other]

I do not mind including my generic internal ip addresses (192.168.xxx.xxx), but would not intentionally publish my public-facing ip address.

Just my two cents.

rokytnji · 01-03-2017, 07:26 PM

Not sure what you mean here.

Code:

@biker:~
$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: biker Kernel: 4.8.1-antix.1-686-smp-pae i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.9.3)
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8 Distro: antiX-15-V_386-full Killah P 30 June 2015
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E4310 v: 0001
           Mobo: Dell model: 0T6M8G v: A01 BIOS: Dell v: A03 date: 07/08/2010
Battery    BAT0: charge: 44.0 Wh 108.9% condition: 40.4/44.0 Wh (92%)
           model: Samsung SDI DELL RM6618A status: Full
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5 M 520 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9576
           clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 1599 MHz 2: 1733 MHz 3: 1199 MHz 4: 1333 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.8.1-antix.1-686-smp-pae
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 6040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 60.0GB (44.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SV300S3 size: 60.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 7.6G used: 4.1G (57%) fs: ext3 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: /home size: 48G used: 21G (47%) fs: ext3 dev: /dev/sda1
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 188 Uptime: 2:23 Memory: 432.3/8021.7MB
           Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2 Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301) inxi: 2.3.5

Notice the mac is filtered? Where is this

Quote:

even the "ports" used.

That you can point out to me in my readout?

port: 6040 don't count for nothing.

Maybe you should take a look at

Code:

man inxi

Code:

inxi -h

To answer your

Quote:

What command results are OK to post and what information should not be posted?

Edit: any other member is welcome to see if any hackable readouts are shown in my post.

Jjanel · 01-04-2017, 06:06 AM

If you posted that (or even as little as my: XPsp2 1000HA), on some other website *where you didn't want anyone to know it's you@LQ*, you'd be 'outed'!

http://security.stackexchange.com/qu...dress-publicly
"when I googled the mac, I identified who it was. He had posted debug info on a Q/A forum"!

Humbug: every camera/microphone/kbd/etc has 'totally traced' us anyways

ondoho · 01-04-2017, 08:45 AM

i think the original question is valid (*).
but, as already pointed out, it could have been solved by reading a single man page (or actually looking at the output before you post it).

it does, however, take a little experience to recognize what is "personal" or machine specific info and what not.
in the 'inxi - Fxz' output above, the only potential i see is the hostname. sometimes the hostname contains quite detailed information about the machine & IP.
i also like to err on the side of caution, and if i see a long hex string like "ab2f:ef29:367b:......" i replace it with XXX just to be sure...

(*) when i was using my brother's web space, he had ssh on a non-standard port. i posted my dotfiles on github, incl. a script to connect to his server. he found out by googling, and admonished me, and had to change the port.

Habitual · 01-04-2017, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by happydog500

In a forum, I was asked to post the results of

Code:

"inxi -Fxz"

Chris:
On https://forums.linuxmint.com/ on this forum, it's the first vital piece of a system summary that helps us know where you and your system stands.
Completely benign, using -z

Code:

man inxi

for all the values.
-z strips out unique identifier like MAC address (full mac: <filter>)
Here's mine.

Code:

System:    Host: my-kungfu Kernel: 4.4.0-45-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.11.8
           Distro: Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Gigabyte product: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z77-DS3H v: x.x BIOS: American Megatrends v: F7 date: 07/12/2012
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-2500K (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 3700 MHz 1: 1600 MHz 2: 1600 MHz 3: 1667 MHz 4: 1630 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 660]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz, 1920x1080@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 660/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 367.57
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 NVIDIA GK106 HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-45-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e
           IF: eth1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet driver: alx
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 5001.0GB (11.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000DM003 size: 1000.2GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST1000DM003 size: 1000.2GB
           ID-3: USB /dev/sdc model: My_Book_1130 size: 3000.6GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 23G used: 7.8G (36%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: /home size: 644G used: 258G (43%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 44C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 247 Uptime: 15 days Memory: 4628.2/16010.2MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.5

And being a Global Moderator at https://forums.linuxmint.com/ I couldn't let you go w\out setting some parts
of it straight.