Re: Game packages starting servers?
On Wednesday 23 October 2002 04:24, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> Well, I was a bit surprised when I installed crossfire-server and it
> automatically started the server. I had intended to use it for private
> testing purposes; I didn't want to run a game server on my machine that
> opened an external port to the net. Perhaps this is a special case;
> perhaps most people who install crossfire-server want to run a server.
Wow, a server which serves by default.
Now who'd think this was the case with... Apache?
If there was any concept like user profiles (those who like servers started by
default and those who do not), a separation of game servers and non-game
servers doesn't make much sense.
The smart way to tackle the problem would be to disable connections to any
local servers from outside by default unless the user decides otherwise.
Or write some simple kind of 'portpolicy' script.
Note that there is exactly one database listing services (namely,
/etc/services), but it covers the IANA assigned ports rather than the ones
which are locally available. A possibility would be to start here.
> Besides, game servers aren't usually designed with system security in mind
> (I know crossfire isn't particularly strong in this respect). Starting
> them by default may be a security concern.
We all know bind and sendmail have been designed with security in mind.
Help fix the sources. Not starting insecure services by default is exactly
within the definition of security through obscurity (and hits the next guy
who fires up the server because he reads about it in a web forum).
Josef
--
Free operating systems. Free software. Free games.
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