xref: /netbsd/share/man/man5/hosts.equiv.5 (revision bf9ec67e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: hosts.equiv.5,v 1.5 2002/01/21 17:41:01 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.  If a
85.Em username
86is not specified, any user may login with the same user name.
87.Sh EXAMPLES
88.Li somehost
89.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
90A common usage:  users on
91.Em somehost
92may login to the local host as the same user name.
93.Ed
94.Li somehost username
95.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
96The user
97.Em username
98on
99.Em somehost
100may login to the local host.  If specified in
101.Em /etc/hosts.equiv ,
102the user may login with only the same user name.
103.Ed
104.Li +@anetgroup username
105.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
106The user
107.Em username
108may login to the local host from any machine listed in the netgroup
109.Em anetgroup .
110.Ed
111.Bd -literal -compact
112+
113+ +
114.Ed
115.Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
116Two severe security hazards.  In the first case, allows a user on any
117machine to login to the local host as the same user name.  In the second
118case, allows any user on any machine to login to the local host (as any
119user, if in
120.Em /etc/hosts.equiv ) .
121.Ed
122.Sh WARNINGS
123The username checks provided by this mechanism are
124.Em not
125secure, as the remote user name is received by the server unchecked
126for validity.  Therefore this mechanism should only be used
127in an environment where all hosts are completely trusted.
128.Pp
129A numeric host address instead of a host name can help security
130considerations somewhat; the address is then used directly by
131.Xr iruserok 3 .
132.Pp
133When a username (or netgroup, or +) is specified in
134.Em /etc/hosts.equiv ,
135that user (or group of users, or all users, respectively) may login to
136the local host as
137.Em any local user .
138Usernames in
139.Em /etc/hosts.equiv
140should therefore be used with extreme caution, or not at all.
141.Pp
142A
143.Em .rhosts
144file must be owned by the user whose home directory it resides in, and
145must be writable only by that user.
146.Pp
147Logins as root only check root's
148.Em .rhosts
149file; the
150.Em /etc/hosts.equiv
151file is not checked for security.  Access permitted through root's
152.Em .rhosts
153file is typically only for
154.Xr rsh 1 ,
155as root must still login on the console for an interactive login such as
156.Xr rlogin 1 .
157.Sh FILES
158.Bl -tag -width /etc/hosts.equiv -compact
159.It Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
160Global trusted host-user pairs list
161.It Pa ~/.rhosts
162Per-user trusted host-user pairs list
163.El
164.Sh SEE ALSO
165.Xr rcp 1 ,
166.Xr rlogin 1 ,
167.Xr rsh 1 ,
168.Xr rcmd 3 ,
169.Xr ruserok 3 ,
170.Xr netgroup 5
171.Sh HISTORY
172The
173.Nm .rhosts
174file format appeared in
175.Bx 4.2 .
176.Sh BUGS
177The
178.Xr ruserok 3
179implementation currently skips negative entries (preceded with a
180.Dq Li \&-
181sign) and does not treat them as ``short-circuit'' negative entries.
182