TCPD linux command manual

TCPD(8)                                                                TCPD(8)



NAME
       tcpd - access control facility for internet services

DESCRIPTION
       The  tcpd  program can be set up to monitor incoming requests for tel-
       net, finger, ftp, exec, rsh, rlogin, tftp, talk, comsat and other ser-
       vices that have a one-to-one mapping onto executable files.

       The  program  supports  both 4.3BSD-style sockets and System V.4-style
       TLI.  Functionality may be limited when the protocol underneath TLI is
       not an internet protocol.

       Operation  is  as follows: whenever a request for service arrives, the
       inetd daemon is tricked into running the tcpd program instead  of  the
       desired server. tcpd logs the request and does some additional checks.
       When all is well, tcpd runs the appropriate server  program  and  goes
       away.

       Optional  features  are: pattern-based access control, client username
       lookups with the RFC 931 etc. protocol, protection against hosts  that
       pretend  to have someone elses host name, and protection against hosts
       that pretend to have someone elses network address.

LOGGING
       Connections that are monitored by tcpd are reported through  the  sys-
       log(3)  facility.  Each  record contains a time stamp, the client host
       name and the name of the requested service.  The  information  can  be
       useful to detect unwanted activities, especially when logfile informa-
       tion from several hosts is merged.

       In order to find out where your logs are  going,  examine  the  syslog
       configuration file, usually /etc/syslog.conf.

ACCESS CONTROL
       Optionally,  tcpd  supports  a  simple  form of access control that is
       based on pattern matching.  The access-control software provides hooks
       for  the  execution  of  shell  commands  when  a  pattern fires.  For
       details, see the hosts_access(5) manual page.

HOST NAME VERIFICATION
       The authentication scheme of some protocols (rlogin,  rsh)  relies  on
       host  names.  Some implementations believe the host name that they get
       from any random name server; other implementations  are  more  careful
       but use a flawed algorithm.

       tcpd   verifies   the  client  host  name  that  is  returned  by  the
       address->name DNS server by looking at the host name and address  that
       are  returned  by the name->address DNS server.  If any discrepancy is
       detected, tcpd concludes that it is dealing with a host that  pretends
       to have someone elses host name.

       If  the  sources are compiled with -DPARANOID, tcpd will drop the con-
       nection in case of a host name/address mismatch.  Otherwise, the host-
       name  can  be matched with the PARANOID wildcard, after which suitable
       action can be taken.

HOST ADDRESS SPOOFING
       Optionally, tcpd disables source-routing socket options on every  con-
       nection  that  it deals with. This will take care of most attacks from
       hosts that pretend to have an address that belongs  to  someone  elses
       network.  UDP  services do not benefit from this protection. This fea-
       ture must be turned on at compile time.

RFC 931
       When RFC 931 etc. lookups are enabled (compile-time option) tcpd  will
       attempt  to  establish  the name of the client user. This will succeed
       only if the client host runs an RFC 931-compliant daemon.  Client user
       name  lookups will not work for datagram-oriented connections, and may
       cause noticeable delays in the case of connections from PCs.

EXAMPLES
       The details of using tcpd depend on pathname information that was com-
       piled into the program.

EXAMPLE 1
       This  example applies when tcpd expects that the original network dae-
       mons will be moved to an "other" place.

       In order to monitor access to the finger service,  move  the  original
       finger  daemon  to  the "other" place and install tcpd in the place of
       the original finger daemon. No changes are required  to  configuration
       files.

            # mkdir /other/place
            # mv /usr/etc/in.fingerd /other/place
            # cp tcpd /usr/etc/in.fingerd

       The example assumes that the network daemons live in /usr/etc. On some
       systems, network daemons live in /usr/sbin or in /usr/libexec, or have
       no 'in.? prefix to their name.

EXAMPLE 2
       This  example  applies  when tcpd expects that the network daemons are
       left in their original place.

       In order to monitor access to the finger service, perform the  follow-
       ing  edits on the inetd configuration file (usually /etc/inetd.conf or
       /etc/inet/inetd.conf):

            finger  stream  tcp  nowait  nobody  /usr/etc/in.fingerd  in.fingerd

       becomes:

            finger  stream  tcp  nowait  nobody  /some/where/tcpd     in.fingerd


       The example assumes that the network daemons live in /usr/etc. On some
       systems,  network  daemons  live  in /usr/sbin or in /usr/libexec, the
       daemons have no 'in.? prefix to their name,  or  there  is  no  userid
       field in the inetd configuration file.

       Similar  changes  will be needed for the other services that are to be
       covered by tcpd.  Send a 'kill -HUP? to the inetd(8) process  to  make
       the  changes  effective.  AIX  users  may  also  have  to  execute the
       'inetimp? command.

EXAMPLE 3
       In the case of  daemons  that  do  not  live  in  a  common  directory
       ("secret"  or otherwise), edit the inetd configuration file so that it
       specifies an absolute path name for the process name field. For  exam-
       ple:

           ntalk  dgram  udp  wait  root  /some/where/tcpd  /usr/local/lib/ntalkd


       Only  the  last  component  (ntalkd)  of the pathname will be used for
       access control and logging.

BUGS
       Some UDP (and RPC) daemons linger around for a while after  they  have
       finished  their  work, in case another request comes in.  In the inetd
       configuration file these services are registered with the wait option.
       Only the request that started such a daemon will be logged.

       The  program  does not work with RPC services over TCP. These services
       are registered as rpc/tcp in the inetd configuration  file.  The  only
       non-trivial service that is affected by this limitation is rexd, which
       is used by the on(1) command. This is no great loss.  On most systems,
       rexd is less secure than a wildcard in /etc/hosts.equiv.

       RPC broadcast requests (for example: rwall, rup, rusers) always appear
       to come from the responding host. What  happens  is  that  the  client
       broadcasts  the  request  to  all portmap daemons on its network; each
       portmap daemon forwards the request to a local daemon. As far  as  the
       rwall etc.  daemons know, the request comes from the local host.

FILES
       The default locations of the host access control tables are:

       /etc/hosts.allow
       /etc/hosts.deny

SEE ALSO
       hosts_access(5), format of the tcpd access control tables.
       syslog.conf(5), format of the syslogd control file.
       inetd.conf(5), format of the inetd control file.

AUTHORS
       Wietse Venema (wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl),
       Department of Mathematics and Computing Science,
       Eindhoven University of Technology
       Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513,
       5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands




                                                                      TCPD(8)