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this article plus other related content. Insecure RPCs can leave
you wide open. Take steps to protect your network. Remote
Procedure Calls (RPCs) are at the heart of client/server
computing, from Windows to *nix, allowing networked devices to
seamlessly call services and components from one another.
They're also the source of numerous vulnerabilities and
exploits. RPC is ubiquitous, and that's the dilemma: You can't
simply turn it off. That said, you're not without security
options. RPC isn't inherently insecure: Developers can write
secure code using RPC, and there are alternatives. You can
defend your networks against known RPC exploits. Since almost
every system runs RPC services, it's an obvious target. RPC
reduces the complexity of network programming by handling
communication over UDP. The programmer writes client/