3.1 Security considerations

Over a connection to a server of the parallel package arbitrary Octave commands can be executed at the server machine. This means that any change can be done to the server system and the resident data, only limited by the rights of the system account under which the server runs.

By default, the server is started with authentication and encryption enabled, to avoid unauthorized access. If the server is started with authentication disabled (maybe to avoid the encryption overhead), it must be cared for that no TCP connection by unauthorized persons is possible to the server ports, possibly by running the client and all server machines behind a firewall and assuring that only trusted persons have access to any machine behind the firewall. This scenario might be achievable in home-nets.

The server currently uses port 12502 for receiving commands and port 12501 for data exchange.

The client and the servers used by the client with pconnect must agree on using authentication or not.

Do not start the server as root.