xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man5/hosts.equiv.5 (revision aaf4ece63a859a04e37cf3a7229b5fab0157cc06)
1.\"	$NetBSD: hosts.equiv.5,v 1.7 2004/11/25 11:40:56 wiz Exp $
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34.Dd November 26, 1997
35.Dt HOSTS.EQUIV 5
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm hosts.equiv ,
39.Nm .rhosts
40.Nd trusted remote hosts and host-user pairs
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm hosts.equiv
44and
45.Nm .rhosts
46files list hosts and users which are
47.Dq trusted
48by the local host when a connection is made via
49.Xr rlogind 8 ,
50.Xr rshd 8 ,
51or any other server that uses
52.Xr ruserok 3 .
53This mechanism bypasses password checks, and is required for access via
54.Xr rsh 1 .
55.Pp
56Each line of these files has the format:
57.Pp
58.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
59hostname [username]
60.Ed
61.Pp
62The
63.Em hostname
64may be specified as a host name (typically a fully qualified host
65name in a DNS environment) or address,
66.Dq Li +@netgroup
67(from which only the host names are checked),
68or a
69.Dq Li \&+
70wildcard (allow all hosts).
71.Pp
72The
73.Em username ,
74if specified, may be given as a user name on the remote host,
75.Dq Li +@netgroup
76(from which only the user names are checked),
77or a
78.Dq Li \&+
79wildcard (allow all remote users).
80.Pp
81If a
82.Em username
83is specified, only that user from the specified host may login to the
84local machine.
85If a
86.Em username
87is not specified, any user may login with the same user name.
88.Sh EXAMPLES
89.Li somehost
90.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
91A common usage:  users on
92.Em somehost
93may login to the local host as the same user name.
94.Ed
95.Li somehost username
96.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
97The user
98.Em username
99on
100.Em somehost
101may login to the local host.
102If specified in
103.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv ,
104the user may login with only the same user name.
105.Ed
106.Li +@anetgroup username
107.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
108The user
109.Em username
110may login to the local host from any machine listed in the netgroup
111.Em anetgroup .
112.Ed
113.Bd -literal -compact
114+
115+ +
116.Ed
117.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
118Two severe security hazards.
119In the first case, allows a user on any
120machine to login to the local host as the same user name.
121In the second case, allows any user on any
122machine to login to the local host (as any user, if in
123.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv ) .
124.Ed
125.Sh WARNINGS
126The username checks provided by this mechanism are
127.Em not
128secure, as the remote user name is received by the server unchecked
129for validity.
130Therefore this mechanism should only be used
131in an environment where all hosts are completely trusted.
132.Pp
133A numeric host address instead of a host name can help security
134considerations somewhat; the address is then used directly by
135.Xr iruserok 3 .
136.Pp
137When a username (or netgroup, or +) is specified in
138.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv ,
139that user (or group of users, or all users, respectively) may login to
140the local host as
141.Em any local user .
142Usernames in
143.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
144should therefore be used with extreme caution, or not at all.
145.Pp
146A
147.Pa .rhosts
148file must be owned by the user whose home directory it resides in, and
149must be writable only by that user.
150.Pp
151Logins as root only check root's
152.Pa .rhosts
153file; the
154.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
155file is not checked for security.
156Access permitted through root's
157.Pa .rhosts
158file is typically only for
159.Xr rsh 1 ,
160as root must still login on the console for an interactive login such as
161.Xr rlogin 1 .
162.Sh FILES
163.Bl -tag -width /etc/hosts.equiv -compact
164.It Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
165Global trusted host-user pairs list
166.It Pa ~/.rhosts
167Per-user trusted host-user pairs list
168.El
169.Sh SEE ALSO
170.Xr rcp 1 ,
171.Xr rlogin 1 ,
172.Xr rsh 1 ,
173.Xr rcmd 3 ,
174.Xr ruserok 3 ,
175.Xr netgroup 5
176.Sh HISTORY
177The
178.Nm .rhosts
179file format appeared in
180.Bx 4.2 .
181.Sh BUGS
182The
183.Xr ruserok 3
184implementation currently skips negative entries (preceded with a
185.Dq Li \&-
186sign) and does not treat them as ``short-circuit'' negative entries.
187