This is NetKit-0.09. 

NetKit-0.09 is an update of NetKit-B-0.08. There is now officially no
"B" in the name. There is NO NetKit-A and there has not been one for a
LONG time. 

NOTE: There was a "NetKit-B-0.07B" uploaded to some archive sites. It
was *not* an official release and might be trojanized. Please delete
it if you see it anywhere.

According to current plans this is the last NetKit with everything
packaged everything together. In the future the components of this
package will be available individually on all the usual archive sites,
most likely including wherever you got this NetKit.

Contents: 
	NetKit contains the following programs:
		biff  comsat  finger  fingerd  ftp  inetd  ping  
		rlogin  rlogind  rcp  rexecd  rsh  rshd  
		rpcgen  rusers  rpc.rusersd  rwall  rpc.rwalld
		rpc.bootparamd  rpcinfo  routed  rwho  rwhod  
		talk  talkd  telnet  telnetd  timed  timedc  
		tftp  tftpd  write  writed

	If you're reading this off a CD, go right away and check the
	net archives for later versions and security fixes.
	
	If you are updating from NetKit-B-0.06, you may also want to
	get the current versions of portmap, rdist, sliplogin, 
	and/or bsd-ftpd, as those are no longer included here. You 
	will also want to get LPRng or PLP to replace lpr, as that is
	no longer included either. All of these can be gotten from
	ftp.uk.linux.org://pub/linux/Networking.

	Note: bsdslattach is no longer included in NetKit. The
	slattach in the net-tools package works perfectly well.

	Note: arp is no longer included in NetKit. The arp in
	the net-tools package works noticeably better.

	Note: NetKit now includes a working (supposedly) routed.
	Please don't use it if you don't know what you're doing,
	though.

	Note: NetKit now includes a bootparamd, for use booting 
	diskless workstations. You probably don't want to install 
	this if you don't need it.

	Note: NetKit now includes write and writed. This version
	supersedes "netwrite-0.9".

Requirements: (I know these work; you can probably use much earlier 
versions of libc, gcc, or the kernel.)

	libc 5.4 or higher 
		Older libc versions will work but anything before 5.4.6 
		includes some nasty security bugs. All the NetKit programs 
		are believed immune to these, but the rest of your system 
		probably isn't... 

		Note: libc 5.0.x is not supported and won't work.

	linux 2.0 or higher 
		Use of 1.2.x kernel versions is not recommended in general.
		NetKit itself will probably work with anything since 0.99pl14,
		although some hacking would probably be required.

	gcc 2.7.2 or higher
		Please get the strength-reduce fix if you don't have it.

	libncurses
		Some versions are reported to cause problems with telnetd,
		but I don't know which ones. Recent versions should be fine.

	libreadline (GNU readline library) is optional but recommended.

Please make sure your header files in /usr/include match your libc
version installed in /lib and /usr/lib. If you have weird problems
this is the most likely culprit.


Installation:
	Edit MCONFIG to set the configuration options. 
	You will want to edit the top-level Makefile to select which
	  programs to build and install.
	Apply the rusersd.x patch to your /usr/include if you feel so 
	  inclined and you have a libc without the patch already applied.
	  This is not necessary; the patch fixes some noncritical compiler
	  warnings.
	Do "make".
	Do "make install" as root to install everything. Save backup copies 
	  of important tools, or confirm the new ones work first. Etc. We 
	  warned you.

Security:
	The tools in NetKit-0.09 are hardened against a particular
	form of name-service spoofing attack that old resolver
	libraries may be vulnerable to. This applies to nearly all the
	programs. For this reason it cannot be considered wise to use
	older versions of any of these tools.

	NetKit-0.09 fixes a /tmp problem in ftp that could be
	exploited by local users to gain access to other accounts,
	including potentially root.

	NetKit-0.09 fixes a buffer overrun in finger that could be
	exploited by local users to gain access to other accounts,
	including potentially root.

	NetKit-0.09 fixes a problem with the use of the resolver
	library in rlogin that could possibly have security
	implications.

	NetKit-0.09 fixes a problem with rexecd that permitted rexecd
	to be used to perform port scans and other undesirable
	behavior.
	
	NetKit-B-0.08 and .07 fixed a number of now well-known security
	problems. Please read README.v08 and README.v07, and don't use
	older versions of the affected programs.

Other notes:
	To compile ftp with readline support you'll need a copy of the
	readline library installed. If you don't have it, get
	readline-2.0 from prep.ai.mit.edu (or any GNU mirror). You'll
	need to apply the enclosed patch, or ftp will have problems with 
	^C handling.

	Use of the the "talk.FvK.patch" patch is neither recommended
	nor discouraged. Apply it at your discretion.

Bugs:
	There is a known bug in telnetd. You can tickle it by logging in,
	doing cat >/dev/null, and typing 256 characters without any newlines. 
	This causes telnetd to hang, for no clear reason.

	Everything else is believed to work. If you sent patches that
	seem to have disappeared, I probably lost them, I'm afraid. The
	excessive length of time since the previous release has caused
	a bit of organizational difficulty.

	If something doesn't compile for you, send diffs. If you can't
	send diffs, send the compiler's error output.

	If it compiles but doesn't work, send as complete a bug report as 
	you can. Patches and fixes are welcome, as long as you describe 
	adequately what they're supposed to fix. Please, one patch per
	distinct fix.

	Be sure to send all correspondence in e-mail. Postings to netnews 
	will not be seen due to the enormous volume.

	Please don't report known bugs (see the BUGS file(s)) unless you
	are including fixes. :-)


David A. Holland	dholland@hcs.harvard.edu
								29-Dec-1996
