Which protocol is unencrypted and often used for remote access?

• A. ssh
• B. ftp
• C. http
• D. telnet

Answer: (D)

The central idea here is how encryption affects remote management sessions. Telnet is designed to provide a remote command-line interface, but it sends every character, including usernames and passwords, in plaintext. That means anyone sniffing the network could read the session as it happens, making it unencrypted and insecure for remote access.

In contrast, SSH encrypts the entire session, protecting credentials and commands from eavesdroppers, so it’s the secure choice for remote access. FTP and HTTP aren’t primarily used for interactive remote login; FTP is for file transfer (and can be encrypted with FTPS/SFTP), while HTTP is web traffic and not intended for secure remote shell access (HTTPS would be the secure variant for web-based admin interfaces).

So, the unencrypted protocol commonly associated with remote access is Telnet.