Bugtraq mailing list archives
Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox
From: dennisg () CyberSAFE COM (Dennis Glatting)
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 22:18:48 -0700
From: Tim Scanlon <tfs () vampire science gmu edu> Date: Thu, 13 Apr 95 20:21:33 -0400
der Mouse wrote:
Maybe a good reason to join the crowd and not run NIS?I wish. It's clear to me that NIS is a big problem. But what else is out there? We have a definite need to share passwd databases across many machines, from multiple vendors, none of which we have source code to. How close to a solution can we get?
There's also NeXT Inc's Netinfo. It's been ported to all sorts of other platforms by a company called xedoc.com (I think it's xedoc.com.au, as they're down under.) I would reccomend taking a serious look at it as an alternate. It has more security to it than standard NIS hands down. And it's a hell of alot easier to administer than either NIS or NIS+, and is far, far more flexible.
I've worked extensivly with both, and allthough I will readily admit I prefer the NeXT GUI and other aspects of it over SunOS, I'm still objective enough to realize that there are areas an applications where on OS is going to be better than another for certain things. (Like if I'm going to do graphics, I'd prefer an SGI over most anything else out there) Basicly what I'm trying to say is while I belive I'm being very, very objective about my opinions on it, don't take my word for it, check it out on your own in depth.
By no means is it "NIS" but it performs all the same functions, plus alot more. I think there may be aspects of NIS+ that might be a bit better, like encrypted transfer of password maps, but I havn't had the same level of experience with NIS+ so I don't want to get into comparison there.
I would reccomend it completly as being worthy of serious consideration as an alternate to NIS, especially in a multivendor enviornment that would preclude running NIS+ at all or easily. The Xedoc product supports a wide variety of vendors systems too. So that's a big plus.
One of the best things I can say for it is, I've never heard of anyone using, making, or otherwise grabbing a password map from netinfo from a totaly alien machine... If anyone's heard of this being done, I'd love to hear how & under what circumstances. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I've seen netinfo frustrate more than one hacker, even when they got on a machine using it via other means.
NetInfo isn't as secure as you think. -dpg
Current thread:
- Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Scott Barman (Apr 12)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) der Mouse (Apr 12)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Timothy Newsham (Apr 13)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Dale Babiy (Apr 13)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Benjamin Cline (Apr 15)
- Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox Dennis Glatting (Apr 15)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Jon Peatfield (Apr 15)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Andreas Siegert (Apr 17)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Bob Beck (Apr 18)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Scott Barman (Apr 13)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Terje Normann Marthinussen (Apr 13)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) der Mouse (Apr 14)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) der Mouse (Apr 14)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) der Mouse (Apr 14)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Jim Thompson (Apr 16)
- Re: Replacement for NIS? (was Re: Obtaining NIS domainname from Gatorbox) Terje Normann Marthinussen (Apr 17)