What did aptitude fail to do when it installed telnetd?

Hi everybody,

I googled and can't figure this out...I just installed Debian 3.1r5
(used to run 2.2). I installed telnetd (please, no posts about how
unsecure it is) using aptitude. telnet to localhost gives me a
connection refused error. I looked in /var/log/syslog and found an
inetd entry complaining about no such user for 'telnetd.telnetd'.

I looked at the inetd.conf fle and it's the same as the one in my old
Debian install. I replaced the owner field of 'telnetd.telnetd' with
root and telnetd works fine (it allows local and remote logins).

Sure, I can keep the file change, but I'd like to learn what went
wrong with the install.

One more thing that may/may not be relevant. In syslog, inetd also
has an entry about not finding initd.d (there is none in /etc--I'm
using inetd.conf). For now I'm assuming this message is just a
nuisance "informative" one.

Thanks all for the insight!


Jim

In comp.os.linux.networking Jim <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I looked in /var/log/syslog and found an inetd entry complaining about no
such user for 'telnetd.telnetd'.

Does the user exist in /etc/passwd?

telnetd:x:104:104::/nonexistent:/bin/false

>
> I looked at the inetd.conf fle and it's the same as the one in my old
> Debian install. I replaced the owner field of 'telnetd.telnetd' with
> root and telnetd works fine (it allows local and remote logins).

The telnetd user should work in inetd.conf:

telnet stream tcp nowait telnetd.telnetd /usr/sbin/tcpd
/usr/sbin/in.telnetd

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

http://markhobley.yi.org/

On Mar 24, 3:03 pm, markhob...@hotpop.deletethisbit.com (Mark Hobley)
wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.networking Jim <adirondack...@yahoo.com> wrote:> I looked in /var/log/syslog and found an inetd entry complaining about no
>
> such user for 'telnetd.telnetd'.
>
> Does the user exist in /etc/passwd?
>
> telnetd:x:104:104::/nonexistent:/bin/false
>
>
>
> > I looked at the inetd.conf fle and it's the same as the one in my old
> > Debian install. I replaced the owner field of 'telnetd.telnetd' with
> > root and telnetd works fine (it allows local and remote logins).
>
> The telnetd user should work in inetd.conf:
>
> telnet stream tcp nowait telnetd.telnetd /usr/sbin/tcpd
> /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark.
>
> --
> Mark Hobley
> 393 Quinton Road West
> QUINTON
> Birmingham
> B32 1QE
>
> Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
> International: 0044 121 247 1596
>
> Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com
>
> http://markhobley.yi.org/

Mark,

Yes, telnetd is in /etc/passwd. This is strange.


Jim

In comp.os.linux.networking Jim <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Yes, telnetd is in /etc/passwd. This is strange.

Ok. In /etc/hosts.allow:

ALL: 127.0.0.1

Stop and restart network services. Can you now telnet localhost?

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

http://markhobley.yi.org/

On Mar 24, 5:03 pm, markhob...@hotpop.deletethisbit.com (Mark Hobley)
wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.networking Jim <adirondack...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes, telnetd is in /etc/passwd. This is strange.
>
> Ok. In /etc/hosts.allow:
>
> ALL: 127.0.0.1
>
> Stop and restart network services. Can you now telnet localhost?
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark.
>
> --
> Mark Hobley
> 393 Quinton Road West
> QUINTON
> Birmingham
> B32 1QE
>
> Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
> International: 0044 121 247 1596
>
> Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com
>
> http://markhobley.yi.org/

Mark,

It didn't make a difference. I think the problem is the telnetd
server process was never launched because inetd doesn't recognize
telnetd as a valid user. Recall in my first post about the syslog
message. The exact message is: gumby inetd[614]: telnet/tcp: No
such user 'telnetd.telnetd', service ignored. I don't see a telnetd
process running.

My passwd entry is: telnetd:x:103:103::/nonexistent:/bin/false

My group entry is: telnetd:x:103:

Like I said, I can get it running if I change inetd.conf to have root
as the user, but I shouldn't have to (it wasn't that way on my older
Debian install).


Jim

In comp.os.linux.networking Jim <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> message. The exact message is: gumby inetd[614]: telnet/tcp: No
> such user 'telnetd.telnetd', service ignored.
> I don't see a telnetd> process running.

Ok, lets check some file ownerships and permissions:

ls -l /usr/sbin/in*

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22720 2006-02-07 02:21 inetd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 35940 2005-10-09 17:24 in.telnetd

ls -l /usr/lib/telnetlogin

-rwsr-xr-- 1 root telnetd 6032 2005-10-09 17:24 /usr/lib/telnetlogin

Note: suid

> My passwd entry is: telnetd:x:103:103::/nonexistent:/bin/false
> My group entry is: telnetd:x:103:

Check that they also exist in shadow and gshadow.

grep "telnet" /etc/services

telnet 23/tcp
telnet 23/udp

cat /etc/hosts.allow

ALL: 127.0.0.1

Is inetd running as root?

ps -ef|grep "inetd"
root 21241 1 0 Feb26 ? 00:00:34 /usr/sbin/inetd

Try adding "-a none" to telnet command in inetd.

Try running the telnetd and -D debugging options. I believe that you can use
sudo to run an user telnetd.

There may be some issues with PAM modules, but I don't know much about these.

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

http://markhobley.yi.org/

On Mar 25, 10:03 am, markhob...@hotpop.deletethisbit.com (Mark Hobley)
wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.networking Jim <adirondack...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > message. The exact message is: gumby inetd[614]: telnet/tcp: No
> > such user 'telnetd.telnetd', service ignored.
> > I don't see a telnetd> process running.
>
> Ok, lets check some file ownerships and permissions:
>
> ls -l /usr/sbin/in*
>
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22720 2006-02-07 02:21 inetd
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 35940 2005-10-09 17:24 in.telnetd
>
> ls -l /usr/lib/telnetlogin
>
> -rwsr-xr-- 1 root telnetd 6032 2005-10-09 17:24 /usr/lib/telnetlogin
>
> Note: suid
>
> > My passwd entry is: telnetd:x:103:103::/nonexistent:/bin/false
> > My group entry is: telnetd:x:103:
>
> Check that they also exist in shadow and gshadow.
>
> grep "telnet" /etc/services
>
> telnet 23/tcp
> telnet 23/udp
>
> cat /etc/hosts.allow
>
> ALL: 127.0.0.1
>
> Is inetd running as root?
>
> ps -ef|grep "inetd"
> root 21241 1 0 Feb26 ? 00:00:34 /usr/sbin/inetd
>
> Try adding "-a none" to telnet command in inetd.
>
> Try running the telnetd and -D debugging options. I believe that you can use
> sudo to run an user telnetd.
>
> There may be some issues with PAM modules, but I don't know much about these.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark.
>
> --
> Mark Hobley
> 393 Quinton Road West
> QUINTON
> Birmingham
> B32 1QE
>
> Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
> International: 0044 121 247 1596
>
> Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com
>
> http://markhobley.yi.org/

Mark,

I appreciate all your help. I tried most of your suggestions last
week--I still haven't tried the "-a none" option though. I've been
busy getting the rest of my system up (lirc, irmp3). Since it works
OK with root as the owner, I'm gonna leave it for now. I don't have
that linux box routed to the internet, so it's not really a big deal.
I just wanted to fix it for the sake of learning. I'll try your last
suggestion, and if it doesn't work, I'll periodically do a newsgroup
search to see if anyone else has the problem/solution.

Thanks again!


Jim