TELNETD(8)TELNETD(8)NAME
telnetd - DARPA TELNET protocol server
SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/mit/sbin/telnetd [-a authmode] [-B] [-D] [debugmode] [-e] [-h]
[-Iinitid] [-l] [-k] [-n] [-rlowpty-highpty] [-s] [-S tos] [-U] [-X
authtype] [-w [ip|maxhostlen[,[no]striplocal]]] [-debug [port]]
DESCRIPTION
The telnetd command is a server which supports the DARPA standard TEL‐
NET virtual terminal protocol. Telnetd is normally invoked by the
internet server (see inetd(8) for requests to connect to the TELNET
port as indicated by the /etc/services file (see services(5)). The
-debug option may be used to start up telnetd manually, instead of
through inetd(8). If started up this way, port may be specified to run
telnetd on an alternate TCP port number.
The telnetd command accepts the following options:
-a authmode
This option may be used for specifying what mode should be used
for authentication. Note that this option is only useful if
telnetd has been compiled with support for the AUTHENTICATION
option. There are several valid values for authmode:
debug Turns on authentication debugging code.
valid Only allow connections when the remote user can provide
valid authentication information to identify the remote
user, and is allowed access to the specified account
without providing a password.
user Only allow connections when the remote user can provide
valid authentication information to identify the remote
user. The login(1) command will provide any additional
user verification needed if the remote user is not
allowed automatic access to the specified account.
other Only allow connections that supply some authentication
information. This option is currently not supported by
any of the existing authentication mechanisms, and is
thus the same as specifying -a valid.
none This is the default state. Authentication information is
not required. If no or insufficient authentication
information is provided, then the login(1) program will
provide the necessary user verification.
off This disables the authentication code. All user verifi‐
cation will happen through the login(1) program.
-B Specifies bftp server mode. In this mode, telnetd causes login
to start a bftp(1) session rather than the user's normal shell.
In bftp daemon mode, normal logins are not supported, and it
must be used on a port other than the normal TELNET port.
-D debugmode
This option may be used for debugging purposes. This allows
telnetd to print out debugging information to the connection,
allowing the user to see what telnetd is doing. There are sev‐
eral possible values for debugmode:
options
Prints information about the negotiation of TELNET
options.
report Prints the options information, plus some additional
information about what processing is going on.
netdata
Displays the data stream received by telnetd.
ptydata
Displays data written to the pty.
encrypt
Enables encryption debugging code.
exercise
Has not been implemented yet.
-debug Enables debugging on each socket created by telnetd (see
SO_DEBUG in socket(2)).
-e This option causes telnetd to refuse unencrypted connections.
-h Disables the printing of host-specific information before login
has been completed.
-I initid
This option is only applicable to UNICOS systems prior to 7.0.
It specifies the ID from /etc/inittab to use when init starts
login sessions. The default ID is fe.
-k This option is only useful if telnetd has been compiled with
both linemode and kludge linemode support. If the -k option is
specified, then if the remote client does not support the
LINEMODE option, then telnetd will operate in character at a
time mode. It will still support kludge linemode, but will only
go into kludge linemode if the remote client requests it. (This
is done by by the client sending DONT SUPPRESS-GO-AHEAD and DONT
ECHO.) The -k option is most useful when there are remote
clients that do not support kludge linemode, but pass the
heuristic (if they respond with WILL TIMING-MARK in response to
a DO TIMING-MARK) for kludge linemode support.
-l Specifies line mode. Tries to force clients to use line-at-a-
time mode. If the LINEMODE option is not supported, it will go
into kludge linemode.
-n Disable TCP keep-alives. Normally telnetd enables the TCP keep-
alive mechanism to probe connections that have been idle for
some period of time to determine if the client is still there,
so that idle connections from machines that have crashed or can
no longer be reached may be cleaned up.
-r lowpty-highpty
This option is only enabled when telnetd is compiled for UNICOS.
It specifies an inclusive range of pseudo-terminal devices to
use. If the system has sysconf variable _SC_CRAY_NPTY config‐
ured, the default pty search range is 0 to _SC_CRAY_NPTY; other‐
wise, the default range is 0 to 128. Either lowpty or highpty
may be omitted to allow changing either end of the search range.
If lowpty is omitted, the - character is still required so that
telnetd can differentiate highpty from lowpty.
-s This option is only enabled if telnetd is compiled with support
for SecurID cards. It causes the -s option to be passed on to
login(1), and thus is only useful if login(1) supports the -s
flag to indicate that only SecurID validated logins are allowed,
and is usually useful for controlling remote logins from outside
of a firewall.
-S tos
-U This option causes telnetd to refuse connections from addresses
that cannot be mapped back into a symbolic name via the gethost‐
byaddr(3) routine.
-w [ip|maxhostlen[,[no]striplocal]]
Controls the form of the remote hostname passed to login(1).
Specifying ip results in the numeric IP address always being
passed to login(1). Specifying a number, maxhostlen, sets the
maximum length of the hostname passed to login(1) before it will
be passed as a numeric IP address. If maxhostlen is 0, then the
system default, as determined by the utmp or utmpx structures,
is used. The nostriplocal and striplocal options, which must be
preceded by a comma, control whether or not the local host
domain is stripped from the remote hostname. By default, the
equivalent of striplocal is in effect.
-X authtype
This option is only valid if telnetd has been built with support
for the authentication option. It disables the use of authtype
authentication, and can be used to temporarily disable a spe‐
cific authentication type without having to recompile telnetd.
Telnetd operates by allocating a pseudo-terminal device (see pty(4))
for a client, then creating a login process which has the slave side of
the pseudo-terminal as stdin, stdout and stderr. Telnetd manipulates
the master side of the pseudo-terminal, implementing the TELNET proto‐
col and passing characters between the remote client and the login
process.
When a TELNET session is started up, telnetd sends TELNET options to
the client side indicating a willingness to do the following TELNET
options, which are described in more detail below:
DO AUTHENTICATION
WILL ENCRYPT
DO TERMINAL TYPE
DO TSPEED
DO XDISPLOC
DO NEW-ENVIRON
DO ENVIRON
WILL SUPPRESS GO AHEAD
DO ECHO
DO LINEMODE
DO NAWS
WILL STATUS
DO LFLOW
DO TIMING-MARK
The pseudo-terminal allocated to the client is configured to operate in
“cooked” mode, and with XTABS and CRMOD enabled (see tty(4)).
Telnetd has support for enabling locally the following TELNET options:
WILL ECHO When the LINEMODE option is enabled, a WILL ECHO
or WONT ECHO will be sent to the client to indi‐
cate the current state of terminal echoing. When
terminal echo is not desired, a WILL ECHO is sent
to indicate that telnetd will take care of echoing
any data that needs to be echoed to the terminal,
and then nothing is echoed. When terminal echo is
desired, a WONT ECHO is sent to indicate that tel‐
netd will not be doing any terminal echoing, so
the client should do any terminal echoing that is
needed.
WILL BINARY Indicates that the client is willing to send a 8
bits of data, rather than the normal 7 bits of the
Network Virtual Terminal.
WILL SGA Indicates that it will not be sending IAC GA, go
ahead, commands.
WILL STATUS Indicates a willingness to send the client, upon
request, of the current status of all TELNET
options.
WILL TIMING-MARK Whenever a DO TIMING-MARK command is received, it
is always responded to with a WILL TIMING-MARK
WILL LOGOUT When a DO LOGOUT is received, a WILL LOGOUT is
sent in response, and the TELNET session is shut
down.
WILL ENCRYPT Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support for
data encryption, and indicates a willingness to
decrypt the data stream.
Telnetd has support for enabling remotely the following TELNET options:
DO BINARY Sent to indicate that telnetd is willing to
receive an 8 bit data stream.
DO LFLOW Requests that the client handle flow control
characters remotely.
DO ECHO This is not really supported, but is sent to
identify a 4.2BSD telnet(1) client, which will
improperly respond with WILL ECHO. If a WILL
ECHO is received, a DONT ECHO will be sent in
response.
DO TERMINAL-TYPE Indicates a desire to be able to request the name
of the type of terminal that is attached to the
client side of the connection.
DO SGA Indicates that it does not need to receive IAC
GA, the go ahead command.
DO NAWS Requests that the client inform the server when
the window (display) size changes.
DO TERMINAL-SPEED Indicates a desire to be able to request informa‐
tion about the speed of the serial line to which
the client is attached.
DO XDISPLOC Indicates a desire to be able to request the name
of the X windows display that is associated with
the telnet client.
DO NEW-ENVIRON Indicates a desire to be able to request environ‐
ment variable information, as described in RFC
1572.
DO ENVIRON Indicates a desire to be able to request environ‐
ment variable information, as described in RFC
1408.
DO LINEMODE Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support for
linemode, and requests that the client do line by
line processing.
DO TIMING-MARK Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support for
both linemode and kludge linemode, and the client
responded with WONT LINEMODE. If the client
responds with WILL TM, the it is assumed that the
client supports kludge linemode. Note that the
-k option can be used to disable this.
DO AUTHENTICATION Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support for
authentication, and indicates a willingness to
receive authentication information for automatic
login.
DO ENCRYPT Only sent if telnetd is compiled with support for
data encryption, and indicates a willingness to
decrypt the data stream.
FILES
/etc/services
/etc/inittab (UNICOS systems only)
/etc/iptos (if supported)
/usr/ucb/bftp (if supported)
SEE ALSOtelnet(1), login(1), bftp(1) (if supported)
STANDARDS
RFC-854 TELNET PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION
RFC-855 TELNET OPTION SPECIFICATIONS
RFC-856 TELNET BINARY TRANSMISSION
RFC-857 TELNET ECHO OPTION
RFC-858 TELNET SUPPRESS GO AHEAD OPTION
RFC-859 TELNET STATUS OPTION
RFC-860 TELNET TIMING MARK OPTION
RFC-861 TELNET EXTENDED OPTIONS - LIST OPTION
RFC-885 TELNET END OF RECORD OPTION
RFC-1073 Telnet Window Size Option
RFC-1079 Telnet Terminal Speed Option
RFC-1091 Telnet Terminal-Type Option
RFC-1096 Telnet X Display Location Option
RFC-1123 Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support
RFC-1184 Telnet Linemode Option
RFC-1372 Telnet Remote Flow Control Option
RFC-1416 Telnet Authentication Option
RFC-1411 Telnet Authentication: Kerberos Version 4
RFC-1412 Telnet Authentication: SPX
RFC-1571 Telnet Environment Option Interoperability Issues
RFC-1572 Telnet Environment Option
BUGS
Some TELNET commands are only partially implemented.
Because of bugs in the original 4.2 BSD telnet(1), telnetd performs
some dubious protocol exchanges to try to discover if the remote client
is, in fact, a 4.2 BSD telnet(1).
Binary mode has no common interpretation except between similar operat‐
ing systems (Unix in this case).
The terminal type name received from the remote client is converted to
lower case.
Telnetd never sends TELNET IAC GA (go ahead) commands.
TELNETD(8)