IDENTD(8)

NAME
identd, in.identd - TCP/IP IDENT protocol server

SYNOPSIS
xDESTDIRx/[in.]identd [-i|-w|-b] [-t<seconds>] [-u<uid>] [-g<gid>] [-p<port>] [-a<address>] [-c<charset>] [-C[<keyfile>]] [-o] [-e] [-l] [-V] [-m] [-N] [-d] [-F<format>] [kernelfile[kmemfile]]

DESCRIPTION
identd is a server which implements the TCP/IP proposed standard IDENT user identification protocol as specified in the RFC 1413 document.

identd operates by looking up specific TCP/IP connections and returning the user name of the process owning the connection. It can optionally return other information instead of a user name.

ARGUMENTS
The -i flag, which is the default mode, should be used when starting the daemon from inetd with the "nowait" option in the /etc/inetd.conf file. Use of this mode will make inetd start one identd daemon for each connection request.

The -w flag should be used when starting the daemon from inetd with the "wait" option in the /etc/inetd.conf file . This is the prefered mode of operation since that will start a copy of identd at the first connection request and then identd will handle subsequent requests without having to do the nlist lookup in the kernel file for every request as in the -i mode above. The identd daemon will run either forever, until a bug makes it crash or a timeout, as specified by the -t flag, occurs.

The -b flag can be used to make the daemon run in standalone mode without the assistance from inetd. This mode is the least prefered mode since a bug or any other fatal condition in the server will make it terminate and it will then have to be restarted manually. Other than that it has the same advantage as the -w mode in that it parses the nlist only once.

The -t<seconds> option is used to specify the timeout limit. This is the number of seconds a server started with the -w flag will wait for new connections before terminating. The server is automatically restarted by inetd whenever a new connection is requested if it has terminated. A suitable value for this is 120 (2 minutes), if used. It defaults to no timeout (i.e. will wait forever, or until a fatal condition occurs in the server).

The -u<uid> option is used to specify a user id number which the ident server should switch to after binding itself to the TCP/IP port if using the -b mode of operation.

The -g<gid> option is used to specify a group id number which the ident server should switch to after binding itself to the TCP/IP port if using the -b mode of operation.

The -p<port> option is used to specify an alternative port number to bind to if using the -b mode of operation. It can be specified by name or by number. Defaults to the IDENT port (113).

The -a<address> option is used to specify the local address to bind the socket to if using the -b mode of operation. Can only be specified by IP address and not by domain name. Defaults to the INADDR_ANY address which normally means all local addresses.

The -V flag makes identd display the version number and then exit.

The -l flag tells identd to use the System logging daemon syslogd for logging purposes.

The -o flag tells identd to not reveal the operating system type it is run on and to instead always return "OTHER".

The -e flag tells identd to always return "UNKNOWN-ERROR" instead of the "NO-USER" or "INVALID-PORT" errors.

The -c<charset> flags tells identd to add the optional (according to the IDENT protocol) character set designator to the reply generated. charset should be a valid character set as described in the MIME RFC in upper case characters.

The -C[<keyfile>] option tells identd to return encrypted tokens instead of user names. The local and remote IP addresses and TCP port numbers, the local user's uid number, a timestamp, a random number, and a checksum, are all encrypted using DES with a secret key derived from the first line of the keyfile (using des_string_to_key(3)). The encrypted binary information is then encoded in a base64 string (32 characters in length) and enclosed in square brackets to produce a token that is transmitted to the remote client. The encrypted token can later be decrypted by idecrypt(8). There may not be a space between the -C and the name of the keyfile. If the keyfile is not specified, it defaults to /etc/identd.key.

The -n flag tells identd to always return user numbers instead of user names if you wish to keep the user names a secret. The -N flag makes identd check for a file ".noident" in each homedirectory for a user which the daemon is about to return the user name for. It that file exists then the daemon will give the error HIDDEN-USER instead of the normal USERID response.

-m flag makes identd use a mode of operation that will allow multiple requests to be processed per session. Each request is specified one per line and the responses will be returned one per line. The connection will not be closed until the connecting part closes it's end of the line. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MODE VIOLATES THE PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION AS IT CURRENTLY STANDS.

The -d flag enables some debugging code that normally should NOT be enabled since that breaks the protocol and may reveal information that should not be available to outsiders.

The -F<format> option makes identd use the specified format to display info. The allowed format specifiers are:
%u   print user name
%U   print user number
%g   print (primary) group name
%G   print (primary) group number
%l   print list of all groups by name
%L   print list of all groups by number
%p   print process ID of running process
%c   print command name
%C   print command and arguments
The lists of groups (%l, %L) are comma-separated, and start with the primary group which is not repeated. The %p and the %c and %C formats are not supported on all architecture implementations (printing 0 or empty string instead).
Any other characters (preceded by %, and those not preceded by it) are printed literally. The "default" format is %u, and you should not use anything else without the -o flag.
Not implemented yet, but on my wish-list are the following:
%w   print working (current) directory
%h   print home (login, naming) directory
%e   print the environment

kernelfile defaults to the normally running kernel file.

kmemfile defaults to the memory space of the normally running kernel.

UNDOCUMENTED FLAGS
The -v flag enables more verbose output or messages. (Further occurences of the -v flag make things even more verbose.) Currently not used: ignored.

The -f<config-file> option causes identd to use the named config file (instead of the default /etc/identd.conf ?). Currently not used: ignored, no config files are used.

The -r<indirect_host> option is used in some way (for proxy queries?).

The -C<keyfile> option is used in some way for DES encryption.

INSTALLATION
identd is invoked either by the internet server (see inetd(8C) ) for requests to connect to the IDENT port as indicated by the /etc/services file (see services(5) ) when using the -w or -i modes of operation or started manually by using the -b mode of operation.

EXAMPLES
Assuming the server is located in /usr/etc/in.identd one can put either:

ident stream tcp wait sys /usr/etc/in.identd in.identd -w -t120

or:

ident stream tcp nowait sys /usr/etc/in.identd in.identd -i

into the /etc/inetd.conf file. User "sys" should have enough rights to READ the kernel but NOT to write to it.

To start it using the -b mode of operation one can put a line like this into the /etc/rc.local file:

/usr/etc/in.identd -b -u2 -g2

This will make it run in the background as user 2, group 2 (user "sys", group "kmem" on SunOS 4.1.1).

NOTES
The username (or UID) returned ought to be the login name. However it (probably, for most architecture implementations) is the "real user ID" as stored with the process; there is no provision for returning the "effective user ID". Thus the UID returned may be different from the login name for setuid programs (or those running as root) which done a setuid(3) call and their children. For example, it may (should?) be wrong for an incoming ftpd ; and we are probably interested in the running shell, not the telnetd for an incoming telnet session. (But of course identd returns info for outgoing connections, not incoming ones.)

The group or list of groups returned (with the -F option) are as looked up in the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files, based on the UID returned. Thus these may not relate well to the group(s) of the running process for setuid or setgid programs or their children.

The command names returned with formats %c and %C may be different, use one or the other or both.

FILES

xCONFDIRx/identd.conf
    This file is as yet un-used, but will eventually contain configuration options for identd

xCONFDIRx/identd.key
    If compiled with -ldes this file can be used to specify a secret key for encrypting replies.

SEE ALSO
authuser(3) , inetd.conf(5) , idecrypt(8)

BUGS
The handling of fatal errors could be better.