Bugtraq mailing list archives

Re: tcpd -DPARANOID doesn't work, and never did


From: wietse () PORCUPINE ORG (Wietse Venema)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 15:35:40 -0500


D. J. Bernstein:
Wietse Venema, BLURB, log_tcp 3.0, comp.sources.misc volume 23:

   Optional features are: access control based on pattern matching, and
   protection against rsh and rlogin attacks from hosts that pretend to
   have someone elses host name.

Let's be reasonable.

The claim obviously was to protect against known rshd/rlogind
attacks, not against every attack anyone might ever conceive.

In the course of maintaining tcpd I learned new things, and built
that knowledge into the software so that other people would profit
from what I had learned.  In the process I helped to make systems
less vulnerable to known attacks.

However, no software can give total protection against every attack,
known or yet to be discovered.  If you read such a claim in my
writing, then I apologize for not being clear enough.

        Wietse

PS: It's an interesting attack, but I still haven't seen your
analysis of the effects of NIS, NSCD, etc. cacheing.



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