[GRLUG] hosts.allow/deny

[Raymond McLaughlin]

Topher wrote:
> I hate ftp, so I never run any daemons on my box.  I have one app that can 
> only export to the web via ftp however, so I'm thinking of putting an ftpd 
> on one of my boxes.  I on;y want to allow connections from that one box 
> however.
> 
> A friend mentioned that I should look into just setting up hosts.allow and 
> .deny properly, so I'm going to head down that path.
> 
> I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has these kind of rules already 
> set up though, or if there are better suggestions.

At the risk of coming too close to answering the question you actually asked...
Yes I have used them it's not complicated. The sytax you may want in 
/etc/hosts.allow might be something like:

     FTP : www.xxx.yyy.zzz : ALLOW

Beyond that,
     man 5 host_access
is your friend. The most significant part might be:
     ACCESS CONTROL FILES
            The access control software consults two files. The search stops
     at the first match:
     o      Access will be granted when a (daemon,client) pair matches an entry
     in the /etc/hosts.allow file.
     o      Otherwise, access will be denied when a (daemon,client) pair matches
     an  entry  in  the  /etc/hosts.deny
               file.
     o      Otherwise, access will be granted.

     A  non-existing  access  control file is treated as if it were an empty
     file. Thus, access control can be turned off by providing no access
     control files.

I hope this helps
Raymond McLaughlin