On Tuesday, 09/20/2011 at 05:09 EDT, David Boyes <[email protected]>
wrote:
> > Well, if you have a little knowledge about iptables, you could trigger
some
> > action when someone tries to connect to some port.
> > So by telnet to for example port 48113, and have iptables trigger this
and
> > start a script that reads from a predefined cms-filename, you have the
trigger
> > functionality there.
> >
> > Maybee this is some overkill...  :)
>
> Big problem here: no authentication of originator (telnet doesn't do
that), no
> way to set the effective uid of the executor (do you want all your users

> executing things as root?) and there's no way to return values to the
> originator. Rsh (for all its warts) at least does these 3 things right.

Amen.  In any peer-peer protocol, there are two important attributes:
1.  Authentication
2.  Privacy

Rsh on an internal z/VM virtual network achieves both.  Things like Live
Guest Relocation introduces an anomaly into the equation, since a what
appears as "internal" one moment may in fact be "remote" at the next.

Of course, protocol security discussions rarely deal with common sense,
but with Rules Made To Be Followed Without Exception Because My
Grandfather Told Me So.  Hence the descent into "rsh/rexec madness" and
the unblinking acceptance of unsecured telnet.  Go figure.  (I can't
believe that in 2011 secure telnet is not de rigueur.)

Alan Altmark

Senior Managing z/VM and Linux Consultant
IBM System Lab Services and Training
ibm.com/systems/services/labservices
office: 607.429.3323
mobile; 607.321.7556
[email protected]
IBM Endicott

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