[techtalk] Tightening Security

[Raven Alder]

Heya --

     I accidentally killed the original message, but someone had made
the point that /etc/services just dictates what port a given service is
listening on, and that disabling that port binding hasn't a thing to do
with whether the service is running at the time.  That's inetd. 
Absolutely right.

     The reason that I had heard cited for commenting out the line in
/etc/services as well as making sure the service wasn't being offered
in inetd.conf (or rc.inet2 or wherever) was to ensure that in case of a
partial system compromise, the hacker installing a new service would
have to take the additional step of editing /etc/services to get any
new program they install to have a port assignment, rather than the
well-known port already working for it.

     I haven't ever actually had this happen personally, so I can't
comment on how effective it is.  Anyone else tried it?  Did it do any
good?

Cheers,
Raven

=====
"You down with entropy?
 Yeah, you know me! (x3)
 Who's down with entropy?
 Every last homey!"
 -- the Mighty Stephen Hawking, "Entropy"
    http://www.mchawking.com

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