Xref: utzoo comp.protocols.tcp-ip:5668 news.sysadmin:1815
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!pprg.unm.edu!kurt
From: kurt@pprg.unm.edu (Kurt Zeilenga)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,news.sysadmin
Subject: .rhosts deleter
Message-ID: <23676@pprg.unm.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 88 06:22:11 GMT
Reply-To: kurt@pprg.unm.edu (Kurt Zeilenga)
Organization: U. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 19

In 1987, we experienced a bit of local abuse of the .rhost feature of
rlogin/rsh/rcp.  We found that by "taking root" on one public system
(the system happened to be in a student laboratory), it was possible
to take root on just about every other system on campus.

Because of this, we (UNM-PPRG) decided to remove .rhosts nightly to
increase security on our systems.  This was a comprimise between
always allowing or completely disabling the feature.  We decided to
allow temporary use of the feature (for doing rsh'ing) yet to "close"
it up every evening.  We also send notes to users who leave .rhosts
around that they should removed them immediately after they are done
with it.

In recent weeks, I've been distributing this code to anyone who wants
it.  So, if you want my code, feel free to "anonymous" FTP to
PPRG.UNM.EDU (192.31.154.1, 129.24.13.10) and get the file
~ftp/pub/rhost.shar (use sh < rhost.shar to unarchive).

	Kurt Zeilenga