xref: /netbsd/share/man/man5/hosts.equiv.5 (revision 6550d01e)
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27.Dd November 26, 1997
28.Dt HOSTS.EQUIV 5
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm hosts.equiv ,
32.Nm .rhosts
33.Nd trusted remote hosts and host-user pairs
34.Sh DESCRIPTION
35The
36.Nm hosts.equiv
37and
38.Nm .rhosts
39files list hosts and users which are
40.Dq trusted
41by the local host when a connection is made via
42.Xr rlogind 8 ,
43.Xr rshd 8 ,
44or any other server that uses
45.Xr ruserok 3 .
46This mechanism bypasses password checks, and is required for access via
47.Xr rsh 1 .
48.Pp
49Each line of these files has the format:
50.Pp
51.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
52hostname [username]
53.Ed
54.Pp
55The
56.Em hostname
57may be specified as a host name (typically a fully qualified host
58name in a DNS environment) or address,
59.Dq Li +@netgroup
60(from which only the host names are checked),
61or a
62.Dq Li \&+
63wildcard (allow all hosts).
64.Pp
65The
66.Em username ,
67if specified, may be given as a user name on the remote host,
68.Dq Li +@netgroup
69(from which only the user names are checked),
70or a
71.Dq Li \&+
72wildcard (allow all remote users).
73.Pp
74If a
75.Em username
76is specified, only that user from the specified host may login to the
77local machine.
78If a
79.Em username
80is not specified, any user may login with the same user name.
81.Sh EXAMPLES
82.Li somehost
83.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
84A common usage:  users on
85.Em somehost
86may login to the local host as the same user name.
87.Ed
88.Li somehost username
89.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
90The user
91.Em username
92on
93.Em somehost
94may login to the local host.
95If specified in
96.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv ,
97the user may login with only the same user name.
98.Ed
99.Li +@anetgroup username
100.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
101The user
102.Em username
103may login to the local host from any machine listed in the netgroup
104.Em anetgroup .
105.Ed
106.Bd -literal -compact
107+
108+ +
109.Ed
110.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
111Two severe security hazards.
112In the first case, allows a user on any
113machine to login to the local host as the same user name.
114In the second case, allows any user on any
115machine to login to the local host (as any user, if in
116.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv ) .
117.Ed
118.Sh WARNINGS
119The username checks provided by this mechanism are
120.Em not
121secure, as the remote user name is received by the server unchecked
122for validity.
123Therefore this mechanism should only be used
124in an environment where all hosts are completely trusted.
125.Pp
126A numeric host address instead of a host name can help security
127considerations somewhat; the address is then used directly by
128.Xr iruserok 3 .
129.Pp
130When a username (or netgroup, or +) is specified in
131.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv ,
132that user (or group of users, or all users, respectively) may login to
133the local host as
134.Em any local user .
135Usernames in
136.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
137should therefore be used with extreme caution, or not at all.
138.Pp
139A
140.Pa .rhosts
141file must be owned by the user whose home directory it resides in, and
142must be writable only by that user.
143.Pp
144Logins as root only check root's
145.Pa .rhosts
146file; the
147.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
148file is not checked for security.
149Access permitted through root's
150.Pa .rhosts
151file is typically only for
152.Xr rsh 1 ,
153as root must still login on the console for an interactive login such as
154.Xr rlogin 1 .
155.Sh FILES
156.Bl -tag -width /etc/hosts.equiv -compact
157.It Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
158Global trusted host-user pairs list
159.It Pa ~/.rhosts
160Per-user trusted host-user pairs list
161.El
162.Sh SEE ALSO
163.Xr rcp 1 ,
164.Xr rlogin 1 ,
165.Xr rsh 1 ,
166.Xr rcmd 3 ,
167.Xr ruserok 3 ,
168.Xr netgroup 5
169.Sh HISTORY
170The
171.Nm .rhosts
172file format appeared in
173.Bx 4.2 .
174.Sh BUGS
175The
176.Xr ruserok 3
177implementation currently skips negative entries (preceded with a
178.Dq Li \&-
179sign) and does not treat them as ``short-circuit'' negative entries.
180