TELNETD(8)

NAME
telnetd - DARPA TELNET protocol server

SYNOPSIS
/usr/libexec/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 TELNET 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 verification 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 several 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 configured, the default pty search range is 0 to _SC_CRAY_NPTY; otherwise, 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 gethostbyaddr(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 specific 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 protocol 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 indicate 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 telnetd 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 information 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 environment variable information, as described in RFC 1572.

DO ENVIRON
    Indicates a desire to be able to request environment 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 ALSO
telnet(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 operating 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.