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The identd server basically tells someone across the network what user owns
a socket. In some cases it can be somewhat usefull, if it's trusted. Many
servers, including several ftp servers, when accepting a connection, query
the ident server on the node that connected to them in order to be able to
log both the username and the ip of whoever is connecting to them, as an
accountability thing. If the ident server isn't there, no big deal, it just
doesn't log the username.
There are certainly reasons not to use an ident server. There is the simple
reason that less things running means less things that can be broken into.
A more complex reason is that someone querying, for instance, what user owns
the socket on port 80 will know what user your webserver is running as,
which might not do them much good, but then again it might.
There are reasons not to log ident packets. Mostly that it tends to put
lots of garbage in your log files. Then again, so does nimda. It's a
matter of personal choice.
There are reasons not to block ident packets, especially if you're not
running identd. Or, even better, you can REJECT them instead of DROPing
them. Although I've never seen a server that won't let you connect unless
you're running identd, (although I've heard some irc servers do this), it
does often slow things down. If for instance I connect to an ftp server
that does ident lookups, often it will fling its ident packets unto the
aether, and then await their return. If you DROP those packets, then
eventually the server will get tired of waiting and connect to you.
However, if you can let it know with a REJECT, it will often accept that
rejection, and accept your connection much faster.
Once again, matter of personal choice. Or corporate security policy. YMMV.
-Joe
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