honey pot

1 definition found

honey pot - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  honey pot
   n.
  
     1. A box designed to attract crackers so that they can be observed
     in action. It is usually well isolated from the rest of the network,
     but has extensive logging (usually network layer, on a different
     machine). Different from an iron box in that its purpose is to
     attract, not merely observe. Sometimes, it is also a defensive
  network
     security tactic -- you set up an easy-to-crack box so that your real
     servers don't get messed with. The concept was presented in Cheswick
  &
     Bellovin's book Firewalls and Internet Security.
  
     2. A mail server that acts as an open relay when a single message is
     attempted to send through it, but discards or diverts for examination
     messages that are detected to be part of a spam run.