Re: UTF8 in SFTP (was: solving the SFTP text mode issue)

[Wei Dai <weidai%eskimo.com@localhost>]

On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 04:25:44PM -0400, Bill Sommerfeld wrote:
> > I'm still at a loss as to why SSH FTP wasn't simply FTP wrapped in
> > SSH. 
>
> for the record, the working group chair (me) is *still* at a loss to
> understand why there seems to be so much of a desire to reinvent the
> wheel here.

I can think of a few reasons:

1. SFTP is very easy to understand and implement, once you've implemented
SSH. 
2. FTP's seperate control and data channels are an annoyance in the
context of SSH. 
3. Historically FTP implementations have been vulnerable
to various attacks. SFTP implementations have not been.
4. SFTP server typically runs under the user's account instead of root.
5. SFTP can be used as a basic network file system, again lightweight and 
secure compared to existing solutions.

Unless people foresee more problems beyond the current one (i.e. text 
transfer mode) with SFTP, why not finish it up?