RE: rlinetd security
> -----Original Message-----
> From: piglet@vegetable.org.uk [mailto:piglet@vegetable.org.uk]On Behalf
> Of Tim Haynes
> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 10:35 AM
> To: Sebastiaan
> Cc: Tim Haynes; pmoffitt@wrv.com; debian-security@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: rlinetd security
>
>
> Sebastiaan <S.Breedveld@ITS.TUDelft.NL> writes:
>
> [snip]
> > > Again, if you don't know why you need it, you don't need it.
> >
> > I know you are right, but I have become curious now: if everyone says
> > that you do not need them, then where are they used for? And
> why are they
> > still installed by default?
>
> Good questions.
>
> a) echo is just there to duplicate everything you send back at you.
> discard is just there to dump everything in the sink.
> chargen is to give a continual stream of output, eg bandwidth testing
> daytime is to give another box a snapshot of the time on here - a crude
> & ancient & horrible way to sync boxes
> netstat is to give a view of `netstat' over the 'net - remote admin?
[snip]
Now that answers some questions. Much better. At least when I turn them
off I will have a clue about what might break.
BTW, my philosophy on disabling unknown services/ports has been to disable
it and see if anything breaks. If something breaks, then figure out what to
do about it. But, this can be a tough philosophy on production machines.
(No, I don't have machines that I can test with here. Nor do I have the
time to set them up.)
The concept of 'if you don't know why your running them you don't need
them.' may be good advice but doesn't help those of use that are trying to
understand Security.
Pat Moffitt
MIS Administrator
Western Recreational Vehicles, Inc.
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