INETD(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual INETD(8)
NAME
inetd - internet "super-server"
SYNOPSIS
inetd [-dlWw] [-a address] [-C rate] [-c maximum] [-p filename] [-R rate]
[-s maximum] [configuration_file]
DESCRIPTION
The inetd utility should be run at boot time by /etc/rc (see rc(8)). It
then listens for connections on certain internet sockets. When a
connection is found on one of its sockets, it decides what service the
socket corresponds to, and invokes a program to service the request. The
server program is invoked with the service socket as its standard input,
output and error descriptors. After the program is finished, inetd
continues to listen on the socket (except in some cases which will be
described below). Essentially, inetd allows running one daemon to invoke
several others, reducing load on the system.
The following options are available:
-a address
Specify one specific IP address to bind to. Alternatively, a
hostname can be specified, in which case the IPv4 or IPv6 address
which corresponds to that hostname is used. Usually a hostname
is specified when inetd is run inside a jail(8), in which case
the hostname corresponds to that of the jail(8) environment.
When the hostname specification is used and both IPv4 and IPv6
bindings are desired, one entry with the appropriate protocol
type for each binding is required for each service in
/etc/inetd.conf. For example, a TCP-based service would need two
entries, one using "tcp4" for the protocol and the other using
"tcp6". See the explanation of the /etc/inetd.conf protocol
field below.
-C rate
Specify the default maximum number of times a service can be
invoked from a single IP address in one minute; the default is
unlimited. May be overridden on a per-service basis with the
"max-connections-per-ip-per-minute" parameter.
-c maximum
Specify the default maximum number of simultaneous invocations of
each service; the default is unlimited. May be overridden on a
per-service basis with the "max-child" parameter.
-d Turn on debugging.
-l Turn on logging of successful connections.
-p Specify an alternate file in which to store the process ID.
-R rate
Specify the maximum number of times a service can be invoked in
one minute; the default is 256. A rate of 0 allows an unlimited
number of invocations.
-s maximum
Specify the default maximum number of simultaneous invocations of
each service from a single IP address; the default is unlimited.
May be overridden on a per-service basis with the "max-child-per-
ip" parameter.
-W Turn on TCP Wrapping for internal services which are built in to
inetd.
-w Turn on TCP Wrapping for external services. See the
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES section for more information on TCP Wrappers
support.
Upon execution, inetd reads its configuration information from a
configuration file which, by default, is /etc/inetd.conf. There must be
an entry for each field of the configuration file, with entries for each
field separated by a tab or a space. Comments are denoted by a "#" at
the beginning of a line. There must be an entry for each field. The
fields of the configuration file are as follows:
service-name
socket-type
protocol
{wait|nowait}[/max-child[/max-connections-per-ip-per-minute[/max-child-per-ip]]]
user[:group][/login-class]
server-program
server-program-arguments
To specify an ONC RPC-based service, the entry would contain these
fields:
service-name/version
socket-type
rpc/protocol
{wait|nowait}[/max-child[/max-connections-per-ip-per-minute[/max-child-per-ip]]]
user[:group][/login-class]
server-program
server-program-arguments
There are two types of services that inetd can start: standard and
TCPMUX. A standard service has a well-known port assigned to it; it may
be a service that implements an official Internet standard or is a
BSD-specific service. As described in RFC 1078, TCPMUX services are
nonstandard services that do not have a well-known port assigned to them.
They are invoked from inetd when a program connects to the "tcpmux" well-
known port and specifies the service name. This feature is useful for
adding locally-developed servers. TCPMUX requests are only accepted when
the multiplexor service itself is enabled, above and beyond and specific
TCPMUX-based servers; see the discussion of internal services below.
The service-name entry is the name of a valid service in the file
/etc/services, or the specification of a UNIX domain socket (see below).
For "internal" services (discussed below), the service name should be the
official name of the service (that is, the first entry in /etc/services).
When used to specify an ONC RPC-based service, this field is a valid RPC
service name listed in the file /etc/rpc. The part on the right of the
"/" is the RPC version number. This can simply be a single numeric
argument or a range of versions. A range is bounded by the low version
to the high version - "rusers/1-3". For TCPMUX services, the value of
the service-name field consists of the string "tcpmux" followed by a
slash and the locally-chosen service name. The service names listed in
/etc/services and the name "help" are reserved. Try to choose unique
names for your TCPMUX services by prefixing them with your organization's
name and suffixing them with a version number.
The socket-type should be one of "stream", "dgram", "raw", "rdm", or
"seqpacket", depending on whether the socket is a stream, datagram, raw,
reliably delivered message, or sequenced packet socket. TCPMUX services
must use "stream".
The protocol must be a valid protocol or "unix". Examples are "tcp" or
"udp", both of which imply IPv4 for backward compatibility. The names
"tcp4" and "udp4" specify IPv4 only. The names "tcp6" and "udp6" specify
IPv6 only. The names "tcp46" and "udp46" specify that the entry accepts
both IPv4 and IPv6 connections via a wildcard AF_INET6 socket. Rpc based
services are specified with the "rpc/tcp" or "rpc/udp" service type. One
can use specify IPv4 and/or IPv6 with the 4, 6 or 46 suffix, for example
"rpc/tcp6" or "rpc/udp46". TCPMUX services must use "tcp", "tcp4",
"tcp6" or "tcp46".
The wait/nowait entry specifies whether the server that is invoked by
inetd will take over the socket associated with the service access point,
and thus whether inetd should wait for the server to exit before
listening for new service requests. Datagram servers must use "wait", as
they are always invoked with the original datagram socket bound to the
specified service address. These servers must read at least one datagram
from the socket before exiting. If a datagram server connects to its
peer, freeing the socket so inetd can receive further messages on the
socket, it is said to be a "multi-threaded" server; it should read one
datagram from the socket and create a new socket connected to the peer.
It should fork, and the parent should then exit to allow inetd to check
for new service requests to spawn new servers. Datagram servers which
process all incoming datagrams on a socket and eventually time out are
said to be "single-threaded". The comsat(8) and talkd(8) utilities are
examples of the latter type of datagram server. The tftpd(8) utility is
an example of a multi-threaded datagram server.
Servers using stream sockets generally are multi-threaded and use the
"nowait" entry. Connection requests for these services are accepted by
inetd, and the server is given only the newly-accepted socket connected
to a client of the service. Most stream-based services operate in this
manner. Stream-based servers that use "wait" are started with the
listening service socket, and must accept at least one connection request
before exiting. Such a server would normally accept and process incoming
connection requests until a timeout. TCPMUX services must use "nowait".
The maximum number of outstanding child processes (or "threads") for a
"nowait" service may be explicitly specified by appending a "/" followed
by the number to the "nowait" keyword. Normally (or if a value of zero
is specified) there is no maximum. Otherwise, once the maximum is
reached, further connection attempts will be queued up until an existing
child process exits. This also works in the case of "wait" mode,
although a value other than one (the default) might not make sense in
some cases. You can also specify the maximum number of connections per
minute for a given IP address by appending a "/" followed by the number
to the maximum number of outstanding child processes. Once the maximum
is reached, further connections from this IP address will be dropped
until the end of the minute. In addition, you can specify the maximum
number of simultaneous invocations of each service from a single IP
address by appending a "/" followed by the number to the maximum number
of outstanding child processes. Once the maximum is reached, further
connections from this IP address will be dropped.
The user entry should contain the user name of the user as whom the
server should run. This allows for servers to be given less permission
than root. The optional group part separated by ":" allows a group name
other than the default group for this user to be specified. The optional
login-class part separated by "/" allows specification of a login class
other than the default "daemon" login class.
The server-program entry should contain the pathname of the program which
is to be executed by inetd when a request is found on its socket. If
inetd provides this service internally, this entry should be "internal".
The server-program-arguments entry lists the arguments to be passed to
the server-program, starting with argv[0], which usually is the name of
the program. If the service is provided internally, the service-name of
the service (and any arguments to it) or the word "internal" should take
the place of this entry.
Currently, the only internal service to take arguments is "auth".
Without options, the service will always return "ERROR : HIDDEN-USER".
The available arguments to this service that alter its behavior are:
-d fallback
Provide a fallback username. If the real "auth" service is
enabled (with the -r option discussed below), return this
username instead of an error when lookups fail for either socket
credentials or the username. If the real "auth" service is
disabled, return this username for every request. This is
primarily useful when running this service on a NAT machine.
-F Same as -f but without the restriction that the username in
.fakeid must not match an existing user.
-f If the file .fakeid exists in the home directory of the
identified user, report the username found in that file instead
of the real username. If the username found in .fakeid is that
of an existing user, then the real username is reported. If the
-i flag is also given then the username in .fakeid is checked
against existing user IDs instead.
-g Instead of returning the user's name to the ident requester,
report a username made up of random alphanumeric characters,
e.g., "c0c993". The -g flag overrides not only the user names,
but also any fallback name, .fakeid or .noident files.
-i Return numeric user IDs instead of usernames.
-n If the file .noident exists in the home directory of the
identified user, return "ERROR : HIDDEN-USER". This overrides
any fakeid file which might exist.
-o osname
Use osname instead of the name of the system as reported by
uname(3).
-r Offer a real "auth" service, as per RFC 1413. All the remaining
flags apply only in this case.
-t sec[.usec]
Specify a timeout for the service. The default timeout is 10.0
seconds.
The inetd utility also provides several other "trivial" services
internally by use of routines within itself. These services are "echo",
"discard", "chargen" (character generator), "daytime" (human readable
time), and "time" (machine readable time, in the form of the number of
seconds since midnight, January 1, 1900). All of these services are
available in both TCP and UDP versions; the UDP versions will refuse
service if the request specifies a reply port corresponding to any
internal service. (This is done as a defense against looping attacks;
the remote IP address is logged.) For details of these services, consult
the appropriate RFC document.
The TCPMUX-demultiplexing service is also implemented as an internal
service. For any TCPMUX-based service to function, the following line
must be included in inetd.conf:
tcpmux stream tcp nowait root internal
When given the -l option inetd will log an entry to syslog each time a
connection is accepted, noting the service selected and the IP-number of
the remote requester if available. Unless otherwise specified in the
configuration file, and in the absence of the -W and -w options, inetd
will log to the "daemon" facility.
The inetd utility rereads its configuration file when it receives a
hangup signal, SIGHUP. Services may be added, deleted or modified when
the configuration file is reread. Except when started in debugging mode,
or configured otherwise with the -p option, inetd records its process ID
in the file /var/run/inetd.pid to assist in reconfiguration.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
TCP Wrappers
When given the -w option, inetd will wrap all services specified as
"stream nowait" or "dgram" except for "internal" services. If the -W
option is given, such "internal" services will be wrapped. If both
options are given, wrapping for both internal and external services will
be enabled. Either wrapping option will cause failed connections to be
logged to the "auth" syslog facility. Adding the -l flag to the wrapping
options will include successful connections in the logging to the "auth"
facility.
Note that inetd only wraps requests for a "wait" service while no servers
are available to service requests. Once a connection to such a service
has been allowed, inetd has no control over subsequent connections to the
service until no more servers are left listening for connection requests.
When wrapping is enabled, the tcpd daemon is not required, as that
functionality is builtin. For more information on TCP Wrappers, see the
relevant documentation (hosts_access(5)). When reading that document,
keep in mind that "internal" services have no associated daemon name.
Therefore, the service name as specified in inetd.conf should be used as
the daemon name for "internal" services.
TCPMUX
RFC 1078 describes the TCPMUX protocol: ``A TCP client connects to a
foreign host on TCP port 1. It sends the service name followed by a
carriage-return line-feed <CRLF>. The service name is never case
sensitive. The server replies with a single character indicating
positive (+) or negative (-) acknowledgment, immediately followed by an
optional message of explanation, terminated with a <CRLF>. If the reply
was positive, the selected protocol begins; otherwise the connection is
closed.'' The program is passed the TCP connection as file descriptors 0
and 1.
If the TCPMUX service name begins with a "+", inetd returns the positive
reply for the program. This allows you to invoke programs that use
stdin/stdout without putting any special server code in them.
The special service name "help" causes inetd to list the TCPMUX services
which are enabled in inetd.conf.
IPsec
The implementation includes a tiny hack to support IPsec policy settings
for each socket. A special form of comment line, starting with "#@", is
interpreted as a policy specifier. Everything after the "#@" will be
used as an IPsec policy string, as described in ipsec_set_policy(3).
Each policy specifier is applied to all the following lines in inetd.conf
until the next policy specifier. An empty policy specifier resets the
IPsec policy.
If an invalid IPsec policy specifier appears in inetd.conf, inetd will
provide an error message via the syslog(3) interface and abort execution.
UNIX Domain Sockets
In addition to running services on IP sockets, inetd can also manage UNIX
domain sockets. To do this you specify a protocol of "unix" and specify
the UNIX domain socket as the service-name. The service-type may be
"stream" or "dgram". The specification of the socket must be an absolute
path name, optionally prefixed by an owner and mode of the form
:user:group:mode:. The specification:
:news:daemon:220:/var/run/sock
creates a socket owned by user "news" in group "daemon" with permissions
allowing only that user and group to connect. The default owner is the
user that inetd is running as. The default mode only allows the socket's
owner to connect.
WARNING: while creating a UNIX domain socket, inetd must change the
ownership and permissions on the socket. This can only be done securely
if the directory in which the socket is created is writable only by root.
Do NOT use inetd to create sockets in world writable directories such as
/tmp; use /var/run or a similar directory instead.
Internal services may be run on UNIX domain sockets, in the usual way.
In this case the name of the internal service is determined using the
last component of the socket's pathname. For example, specifying a
socket named /var/run/chargen would invoke the "chargen" service when a
connection is received on that socket.
FILES
/etc/inetd.conf configuration file
/etc/netconfig network configuration data base
/etc/rpc translation of service names to RPC program numbers
/etc/services translation of service names to port numbers
/var/run/inetd.pid the pid of the currently running inetd
EXAMPLES
Here are several example service entries for the various types of
services:
# The first four launch the relevant daemon when a connection on a port
# as defined by /etc/services is opened.
ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/libexec/ftpd ftpd -l
ntalk dgram udp wait root /usr/libexec/ntalkd ntalkd
telnet stream tcp6 nowait root /usr/libexec/telnetd telnetd
shell stream tcp46 nowait root /usr/libexec/rshd rshd
# Let the system respond to date requests via tcpmux
tcpmux/+date stream tcp nowait guest /bin/date date
# Let people access the system phonebook via tcpmux
tcpmux/phonebook stream tcp nowait guest /usr/local/bin/phonebook phonebook
# Make kernel statistics accessible
rstatd/1-3 dgram rpc/udp wait root /usr/libexec/rpc.rstatd rpc.rstatd
# Use netcat as a one-shot HTTP proxy with nc (from freebsd-tips fortune)
http stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/nc nc -N dest-ip 80
# Set up a unix socket at /var/run/echo that echo's back whatever is written
# to it.
/var/run/echo stream unix nowait root internal
# Run chargen for IPsec Authentication Headers
#@ ipsec ah/require
chargen stream tcp nowait root internal
#@
ERROR MESSAGES
The inetd server logs error messages using syslog(3). Important error
messages and their explanations are:
service/protocol server failing (looping), service terminated.
The number of requests for the specified service in the past minute
exceeded the limit. The limit exists to prevent a broken program or a
malicious user from swamping the system. This message may occur for
several reasons:
1. There are many hosts requesting the service within a short
time period.
2. A broken client program is requesting the service too
frequently.
3. A malicious user is running a program to invoke the service in
a denial-of-service attack.
4. The invoked service program has an error that causes clients
to retry quickly.
Use the -R rate option, as described above, to change the rate limit.
Once the limit is reached, the service will be reenabled automatically in
10 minutes.
service/protocol: No such user user, service ignored
service/protocol: getpwnam: user: No such user
No entry for user exists in the passwd(5) database. The first message
occurs when inetd (re)reads the configuration file. The second message
occurs when the service is invoked.
service: can't set uid uid
service: can't set gid gid
The user or group ID for the entry's user field is invalid.
setsockopt(SO_PRIVSTATE): Operation not supported
The inetd utility attempted to renounce the privileged state associated
with a socket but was unable to.
unknown rpc/udp or rpc/tcp
No entry was found for either udp or tcp in the netconfig(5) database.
unknown rpc/udp6 or rpc/tcp6
No entry was found for either udp6 or tcp6 in the netconfig(5) database.
SEE ALSO
nc(1), ipsec_set_policy(3), hosts_access(5), hosts_options(5),
login.conf(5), netconfig(5), passwd(5), rpc(5), services(5), comsat(8),
fingerd(8), ftpd(8), rlogind(8), rpcbind(8), rshd(8), talkd(8),
telnetd(8), tftpd(8)
Michael C. St. Johns, Identification Protocol, RFC1413.
HISTORY
The inetd utility appeared in 4.3BSD. TCPMUX is based on code and
documentation by Mark Lottor. Support for ONC RPC-based services is
modeled after that provided by SunOS 4.1. The IPsec hack was contributed
by the KAME project in 1999. The FreeBSD TCP Wrappers support first
appeared in FreeBSD 3.2.
FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 December 6, 2021 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6
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