| .TH SAFE_FINGER 8 "21th June 1997" Linux "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
| .SH NAME |
| safe_finger \- finger client wrapper that protects against nasty stuff |
| from finger servers |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .B safe_finger [finger_options] |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| The |
| .B safe_finger |
| command protects against nasty stuff from finger servers. Use this |
| program for automatic reverse finger probes from the |
| .B tcp_wrapper |
| .B (tcpd) |
| , not the raw finger command. The |
| .B safe_finger |
| command makes sure that the finger client is not run with root |
| privileges. It also runs the finger client with a defined PATH |
| environment. |
| .B safe_finger |
| will also protect you from problems caused by the output of some |
| finger servers. The problem: some programs may react to stuff in |
| the first column. Other programs may get upset by thrash anywhere |
| on a line. File systems may fill up as the finger server keeps |
| sending data. Text editors may bomb out on extremely long lines. |
| The finger server may take forever because it is somehow wedged. |
| .B safe_finger |
| takes care of all this badness. |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| .BR hosts_access (5), |
| .BR hosts_options (5), |
| .BR tcpd (8) |
| .SH AUTHOR |
| Wietse Venema, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. |
| |