Duplicate Posts - Burst Posts...

From: der Mouse <mouse_at_Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
Date: Fri Jun 18 18:53:57 2004

>>>> [...identd...]
>>> What do you mean by "certain protocol errors"?
>> I've noticed five major classes of errors.
>> Doesn't exist
>> This is an "ERROR:NO-USER" response. This should never happen;
> Don't forget that a lot of Linux dists were shipping with identd
> configured to send 'UNKNOWN' or 'ERROR:NO-USER' to all requests.

ERROR:HIDDEN-USER or ERROR:UNKNOWN-ERROR I have no beef with; they
don't bother me. ERROR:NO-USER does (when it's not actually true, of
course).

Anyone shipping an OS with an identd so badly misconfigured as to
return ERROR:NO-USER when it's not actually true is doing its users a
severe disservice (unless putative new users are specifically and
loudly warned of the nonconformance). Any user un-diligent enough to
run such a distro (or crazy enough to run it even knowing that about
it) is not _my_ problem. Presumably some people would end up running
it out of ignorance; ignorance has never been an excuse - and
furthermore, that's why such hosts get a "greeting" saying "come back
when you've fixed your identd", so they are pointed at the problem.

> Supposedly this was to improve security...

Bah. Idiots. Returning UNKNOWN-ERROR for all queries has absolutely
no security benefit over simply not running anything on port 113 at
all, and in fact is a security _hazard_ because it's one more daemon to
potentially be cracked through.

I don't mind rejecting mail from those stupid, careless, or crazy
enough to run systems that brokenly. And as for ignorance, the other
plausible explanation, that's why the error I return to them points
them at the brokenness, so they can cure their ignorance.

Sigh. Tony's rantings about people not understanding things applies to
software too, I think, for all that he was applying it primarily to
electronics and mechanical gadgetry.

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Received on Fri Jun 18 2004 - 18:53:57 BST

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