[MLUG] tcp wrappers annoyance (solved)

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I couldn't connect by any protocol to one of our machines from my machine
(taxa.psyc.missouri.edu).  The remote machine was configured like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
from /etc/hosts.deny:
ALL: ALL

from /etc/hosts.allow
ALL: .missouri.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought I should be able to get in because taxa.psyc.missouri.edu is in
.missouri.edu and .missouri.edu is allowed.

Well, the problem was that I had this line in the /etc/hosts file:

128.206.38.235	taxa	taxa.psyc

Adding this to /etc/hosts.allow solved my problem:

ALL: .missouri.edu 128.206.


The problem had me preplexed at first, but it makes perfect sense in a
way.  tcp wrappers was reading the name of the connecting machine as
"taxa" in the /etc/hosts file, so it couldn't tell that taxa was in
.missouri.edu and therefore allowed.  It really threw me because I tried
to connect from several machines and was denied from all of them -- all
were listed with nicknames in the /etc/hosts file.

Maybe some would say that I shouldn't put these lines in the /etc/hosts
file, but it has some advantages for me (e.g., keeping log file sizes down
a little bit).

Mike

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