Yesterday I needed a telnet client to connect to my ADSL router and none of the three Windows Seven computers at my home had it(Win Home Premium 32 PC, Win Professional 64 notebook and Win Ultimate 32 notebook). Fortunately, looking for a way to install telnet again at my machine(the one with Win 7 Prof.) I found an aswear here on SU(just for reference).
This makes me wondering why would Microsoft disable telnet on Windows Seven. As far I remember, it was present and active on Windows Vista and XP on all versions and SKUs.
Should this be for any reason linked to security threat, I mean, could Microsoft be worried about users security on using a telnet client? Wouldn't it be just on a telnet server? There is a true explained reason to that?
Best Answer
Having a telnet client isn't a threat in itself, if you're using it within your local network. Telnet was disabled in Windows 7 because it sends usernames and passwords in the clear for authentication. See this thread.
Running a server could constitute a legitimate security risk, but that isn't what you're doing so don't worry about it.