Is scanning illigle??

hi,
can someone tell me what is the difference between scanning and verifying proxies, ppl say scanning is illegal but what about programmes that verify proxies, because the progz that do scanning and the one's that do verification both works on same principle, both probe the ip's against certain ports so what is the difference between them, are the both things scanning + verifying proxies is illegal? and if verifying proxies is not illegal why it is so. there are many websites on which they get money for providing list of working proxies, is it legal to use that proxies?

Cheers..

~Pranav

Scanning is not clearly stated as illegal in any country that I know -from what I read neither in India, as of the Indian Information Technology Act in 2000-. It may be against the policy of many ISPs, but that mostly refers to mass scanning and especially vulnerability assessment scanning that precedes an attack or penetration attempt. In any case, port probing on it's own is not considered either and in the worst case it can only cause your Internet account termination and the publication of your private information to any implicated parties.
But generally, your ISP is not likely to bother you unless a complaint is made.

If you don't go out mass scanning hosts and attacking them you should be on the safe side

I wouldn't be scanning large portions of internet IP addresses, though. I'm sure in many countries, if you happen to be scanning government IP ranges, they won't be too happy about it, I know that would be the case in at least the U.S. I think the bottom line is port scanners should be a tool kept within the realm of your own network to troubleshoot and assess security. It's none of our business what ports somebody else's network/computer has open, IMO. I think an ideal solution is to get in contact with the proxy server operator to see what services they offer, just so no toes are stepped on.

so it means when u scan or verify a swords always there on ur head is there any safe way.

Cheers..

~Pranav

Well, to verify that a proxy works you just attempt a connections to the port that it listens and attempt to use it (that is attempt to tunnel through, to a remote location), you do not probe all the ports of the server! Programs that check a list of proxies, still do just that (attempt to make use of the proxy at the predefined port).

Many of the proxies that are published on public lists are not meant to provide public service, if they do it is either because of misconfiguration or more rarely because the machines were compromised. That's why they do not last very long. It is up to you whether you feel that it is moral or not to use them, however in practice no one will tell you anything if you do, just to surf anonymously for example (if you use them to do something illegal, then this is an other story of course). Thousands of other users do that, every day, and who can really blame them for just using what is openly available?

Scanning an address space blindly, for finding public proxy services on the other hand, is something completelly different. Like Jeremy said, it is more risky and some jumpy administrator might send a complaint against you to your ISP who in turn, depending on his policy, might ignore it (which is the most possible), send you a warning or in some extreme case, even terminate your account -but nothing more, let's be realistic!
Concerning the ethical part, I don't think it is something bad to look for a public service through port probing.. In many wide area networks it is considered standard practice to discover available services this way, why not in the internet too? Unless you mean to abuse or do harm it is perfectly ok in my opinion.. Internet was created in the spirit of good faith instead of suspicion and should remain this way whenever possible.

However if your ISP demands otherwise for some reason, it is wise to comply to his policy. Be sure to check the Acceptable Use Policy of your ISP.

PS. ..For the proxy matter, you can save yourself the trouble of searching in the first place, and use TOR .