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Date:      Sat, 10 Jul 1999 16:00:02 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@village.org>
To:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc:        chris@calldei.com
Subject:   Re: a BSD identd 
Message-ID:  <199907102200.QAA33239@harmony.village.org>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 10 Jul 1999 15:57:21 CDT." <19990710155721.C57198@holly.dyndns.org> 
References:  <19990710155721.C57198@holly.dyndns.org>  <199907102048.WAA14139@gratis.grondar.za> 

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In message <19990710155721.C57198@holly.dyndns.org> Chris Costello writes:
:    The whole point of ident was -- and still is -- to
: authenticate or verify who created a specific TCP connection.

NO.  The IDENT protocol was never intended to authenticate who was on
the other end.  *NEVER*.  People ABUSED it as such, but its value is
only as good as the person providing the information.

: If
: the machine is untouched (i.e., has not had the root account
: compromised), then ident responses are usually trustworthy
: enough.  It is generally not applicable to single user operating
: systems like Windows, Mac OS, or DOS.

FALSE.  If I can hit the remote side faster than the machine that is
untouched with a response (by sniffing the packets on a network and
heavily loading the machine that I'm attacking from, but haven't
penetrated root), then the information is bogus as well.

At best, the information provides who might be on the other end of the
end of the link...

Warner


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