warning in /var/log/messages

[Don Harrop]

Well, considering that this server isn't running named (I'm assuming that
bind is the same thing... DNS) I went into the inetd.conf file and commented
out the auth line and restarted the services.  That worked.  My only
question now is why.  What does auth or identd do?  If it's not that great
to have running by the inetd super server why would it be in there in the
first place?

Don

Starved for knowledge, fed by an OS that provides it.... not hides it!

> Actually, it seems that you are running bind on your system and you have
> defined to Host names ("A" records) to the same ip address. Only one host
> name should be assigned to ip address within bind and any other names that
> you wish to use for this computer should be "CN" aka alias records.
>
> The real cause of your error message in the syslog is related to running
the
> 'auth' service within inetd.conf (comment the auth service out and send a
> SIGHUP command) and then the identd service runs on its own pid.
>
> The greater minds on this message base might want to convince you either
to
> 1 - remove/disable auth from inetd or
> 2 - disable auth aka identd altogether
>
> I would be interested in any comments that some might have regarding the
> usefulness / necessity / security implications of running identd/auth
> services. The book on Linux/OpenBSD firewalls that I just finished
definitly
> recommended to extinguish this service and to specifically REJECT (using
> IPCHAINS) attempts to connect to this port so mail servers etc don't hang
> you out to dry while waiting for a reply.
>
> Craig