On Fri, Sep 14, 2007 at 09:15:54AM -0700, PETER EASTHOPE wrote: > Folk, > > Some services listed in /etc/services, might never be intended > to operate on a specific machine. bootps and finger are likely > examples. > > In interest of security, is there any benefit in commenting out > unused services? tong is right that there is definitely benefit in not running services you don't need. However, to my knowledge, /etc/services is just a listing of services and does not control what services are actually operated. That is controlled by what processes are running and whether they provide a service or not. MOst of this is done through init scripts (/etc/init.d and the appropriate run-level links) or through inetd. The existence of a line in /etc/services does not affect whether the service runs or not. I see per `man 5 services` that network programs should look there to get a mapping of which ports to use, but otherwise that file does not effect whether a service is available. A
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