[Techtalk] closing ports in /etc/services

Laurel Fan laurel at sdf.lonestar.org
Wed Sep 17 11:46:58 EST 2003


On Wed, Sep 17, 2003 at 11:31:47AM -0700, Carla Schroder wrote:
> Now I see this document
> http://www.resnet.mtu.edu/support/linux/ports.php3 that says you can
> simply comment out ports you want to keep closed in
> /etc/services. Sounds daffy to me- what say ye?

Sounds daffy to me too.  What /etc/services mostly is for is allowing
you to use the name of a service rather than the port number (so that
"telnet localhost http" does the same thing as "telnet localhost 80").

The author might have been confused about /etc/services and
/etc/inetd.conf.  inetd.conf is the config file for the inetd server,
which typically controls several different "small" services (such as
ftp, mail).  Commenting out a line in inetd.conf will actually stop
inetd from running that service.

-- 
laurel at sdf.lonestar.org
http://dreadnought.gorgorg.org


More information about the Techtalk mailing list