rlogind is the server for the
rlogin(1) program. The server provides a remote login facility with authentication based on privileged port numbers from trusted hosts.
Options supported by
rlogind:
-a
Ask hostname for verification.
-l
Prevent any authentication based on the user's “.rhosts” file, unless the user is logging in as the superuser.
-n
Disable keep-alive messages.
-L
Log all successful accesses to
syslogd(8) as
auth.info messages.
rlogind listens for service requests at the port indicated in the ``login'' service specification; see
services(5). When a service request is received the following protocol is initiated:
1.
The server checks the client's source port. If the port is not in the range 512-1023, the server aborts the connection.
2.
The server checks the client's source address and requests the corresponding host name (see
getnameinfo(3),
hosts(5) and
named(8)). If the hostname cannot be determined, the dot-notation representation of the host address is used. If the hostname is in the same domain as the server (according to the last two components of the domain name), or if the
-a option is given, the addresses for the hostname are requested, verifying that the name and address correspond. Normal authentication is bypassed if the address verification fails.
Once the source port and address have been checked,
rlogind proceeds with the authentication process described in
rshd(8). It then allocates a pseudo terminal (see
pty(4)), and manipulates file descriptors so that the slave half of the pseudo terminal becomes the
stdin,
stdout, and
stderr for a login process. The login process is an instance of the
login(1) program, invoked with the
-f option if authentication has succeeded. If automatic authentication fails, the user is prompted to log in as if on a standard terminal line.
The parent of the login process manipulates the master side of the pseudo terminal, operating as an intermediary between the login process and the client instance of the
rlogin(1) program. In normal operation, the packet protocol described in
pty(4) is invoked to provide ‘^S/^Q' type facilities and propagate interrupt signals to the remote programs. The login process propagates the client terminal's baud rate and terminal type, as found in the environment variable, ‘
TERM'; see
environ(7). The screen or window size of the terminal is requested from the client, and window size changes from the client are propagated to the pseudo terminal.
Transport-level keepalive messages are enabled unless the
-n option is present. The use of keepalive messages allows sessions to be timed out if the client crashes or becomes unreachable.
At the end of a login session,
rlogind invokes the
ttyaction(3) facility with an action of "rlogind" and user "root" to execute site-specific commands.