Re: Setting nmap host_timeout too low may cause DoS on inetd (?)

[lamont () security hp com (LaMont Jones)]

> BSD derived inetd's have looping control built in. they usually log this,
> "looping too fast", via syslog and then halt operations for a bit. it's a
> weak form of DoS mitigation, and it works. i don't know the vintage of
> HPUX inetd, but is it syslogging anything similar to "looping too fast"?
> my HPUX box is unavailable from my location here, so i can't run strings
> on it to see if that's built in.

If it's an old enough, unpatched, inetd, then it has problems with looping.
The current inetd for 10.20 says:
% strings -a /usr/sbin/inetd | grep 'looping'
%s: Server failing (looping), service terminated

lamont