| Patrick Williams | c124f4f | 2015-09-15 14:41:29 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | .TH SAFE_FINGER 8 "21th June 1997" Linux "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
| 2 | .SH NAME |
| 3 | safe_finger \- finger client wrapper that protects against nasty stuff |
| 4 | from finger servers |
| 5 | .SH SYNOPSIS |
| 6 | .B safe_finger [finger_options] |
| 7 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
| 8 | The |
| 9 | .B safe_finger |
| 10 | command protects against nasty stuff from finger servers. Use this |
| 11 | program for automatic reverse finger probes from the |
| 12 | .B tcp_wrapper |
| 13 | .B (tcpd) |
| 14 | , not the raw finger command. The |
| 15 | .B safe_finger |
| 16 | command makes sure that the finger client is not run with root |
| 17 | privileges. It also runs the finger client with a defined PATH |
| 18 | environment. |
| 19 | .B safe_finger |
| 20 | will also protect you from problems caused by the output of some |
| 21 | finger servers. The problem: some programs may react to stuff in |
| 22 | the first column. Other programs may get upset by thrash anywhere |
| 23 | on a line. File systems may fill up as the finger server keeps |
| 24 | sending data. Text editors may bomb out on extremely long lines. |
| 25 | The finger server may take forever because it is somehow wedged. |
| 26 | .B safe_finger |
| 27 | takes care of all this badness. |
| 28 | .SH SEE ALSO |
| 29 | .BR hosts_access (5), |
| 30 | .BR hosts_options (5), |
| 31 | .BR tcpd (8) |
| 32 | .SH AUTHOR |
| 33 | Wietse Venema, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. |
| 34 | |