/etc/hosts.equiv verses $HOME/.rhosts

[Bill Wyatt,OIR]

[...]
|>>Since I use X on several machines at once, I have a script run at
|>>login time to rlogin to those few machines I always use. My .login on
|>>those remote machines copies a files into .rhosts. I also have a `log'
|>>command aliased to set an environment variable before logging out so I
|>>can log out but not have the .logout script kill the .rhosts file. 

|> So you type your password several times (ie one per machine) to 
|> gain access to all of the other machines??
|> If you are woried about wire security, then here you are sending your
|> unencrypted password across the network several times.  If you are only
|> woried about others faking host addresses, well, mabye.  But is it
|> really worth the added inconvinence?  I would not be suprised to find
|> scripts that "Do this automagically" from one or more people.
[...]

Yes, I do indeed type my password several times (actually, usually
twice other than the initial login). Each password is different, of
course. Note that I believe it is perfectly OK to write passwords down
as long as you keep them in your wallet, NOT!!! on the terminal or in
your desk.

No, I am not worried at all about wire security. I concede that this
would be bad in that case. 

Yes, it is worth the (really very minor) inconvenience. We had a real
case last spring where someone walked all over us partly because of
our free use of .rhosts files. Fortunately, no lasting damage (other
than many $1000's of our time) was done. The extra minute spent in the
morning is small potatoes.

Bill Wyatt, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory  (Cambridge, MA, USA)
    UUCP :  {husc6,cmcl2,mit-eddie}!harvard!cfa!wyatt
 Internet:   wyatt at cfa.harvard.edu
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