Subject: Re: localhost security hole To: David Laight <> From:
Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU> List: tech-security Date:
06/28/2003 22:14:44     Date:        Sat, 28 Jun 2003 16:02:53
+0100     From:        David Laight <>     Message-ID:  <>    |
Erm why?  Because almost no-one ever remembers (or wants) to
race around fixing all those /etc/hosts files when a system gets
its address altered.    | Also you need to put entries into
/etc/hosts for any system you   | NFS mount from during the boot
process.   | Then you can boot systems when the name server is
down.  First, there shouldn't be any system which is "the name
server", there should be several systems which are "name
servers", so the chance of them all being down are slight.
Second, if you really need protection from that, then let the
hosts file be used second, not first, so it gets used only if
the DNS isn't functioning (which is what the original DNS
resolver interfaces did, and which worked well enough).   You
still have problems if hosts get renumb