Chapter 17. TCP Wrappers and xinetd
Controlling access to network services is one of the most important
security tasks facing a server administrator. Red Hat Enterprise Linux
provides several tools which do just that. For instance, an
iptables-based firewall filters out unwelcome network
packets within the kernel's network stack. For network services that
utilize it, TCP wrappers add an additional layer
of protection by defining which hosts are or are not allowed to
connect to "wrapped" network services. One such
wrapped network service is the xinetd super
server. This service is called a super server because it
controls connections to a subset of network services and further refines
access control.
Figure 17-1 is a basic illustration of how these
tools work together to protect network services.
This chapter focuses on the role of TCP wrappers and
xinetd in controlling access to network services and
reviews how these tools can be used to enhance both logging and utilization
management. For a discussion of using firewalls with
iptables, refer to Chapter 18 iptables.
The TCP wrappers package (tcp_wrappers) is
installed by default and provides host-based access control to network
services. The most important component within the package is the
/usr/lib/libwrap.a library.
In general terms, a TCP wrapped service is one that has been compiled
against the libwrap.a library.
When a connection attempt is made to a TCP wrapped service, the
service first references the hosts access files
(/etc/hosts.allow and
/etc/hosts.deny) to determine whether or not the
client host is allowed to connect. In most cases, it then uses the
syslog daemon (syslogd) to write the name of the
requesting host and the requested service to
/var/log/secure or
/var/log/messages.
If a client host is allowed to connect, TCP wrappers release control of
the connection to the requested service and do not interfere further
with communication between the client host and the server.
In addition to access control and logging, TCP wrappers can activate
commands to interact with the client before denying or releasing control
of the connection to the requested network service.
Because TCP wrappers are a valuable addition to any server
administrator's arsenal of security tools, most network services within
Red Hat Enterprise Linux are linked against the libwrap.a
library. Some such applications include
/usr/sbin/sshd,
/usr/sbin/sendmail, and
/usr/sbin/xinetd.
 | Note |
|---|
| | To determine if a network service binary is linked against
libwrap.a, type the following command as the root
user:
strings -f <binary-name> | grep hosts_access |
Replace <binary-name> with the name
of the network service binary.
If a prompt is returned, then the network service is
not linked against
libwrap.a.
|
TCP wrappers provide the following advantages over other network
service control techniques:
Transparency to both the client host and the wrapped
network service — Both the connecting client and
the wrapped network service are unaware that TCP wrappers are in
use. Legitimate users are logged and connected to the requested
service while connections from banned clients fail.
Centralized management of multiple
protocols — TCP wrappers operate separately from
the network services they protect, allowing many server applications
to share a common set of configuration files for simpler management.
