Bug#473828: hosts: Unreasonable impact of misconfigured /etc/hosts file

[Ulrik Sverdrup]

Package: general
Severity: normal

The impact of a misconfigured /etc/hosts file can be quite grave.

Prime example: If the hostname is not in /etc/hosts, sudo does not run
which means that the problem can not be resolved without direct root
login or single user mode. See also bug #473827

Also, misconfiguration can lead to that the local hostname is resolved
on the network, causing latency whenever it is requested, such as when
launching applications, sudo, etc etc. This effect should be minimized.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-3-powerpc
Locale: LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=sv_SE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash



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Bug#473828: hosts: Unreasonable impact of misconfigured /etc/hosts file

[Ulrik Sverdrup]

2008/4/2, Steve Greenland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> On 01-Apr-08, 16:13 (CDT), Ulrik Sverdrup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>  > Package: general
>  > Severity: normal
>  >
>  > The impact of a misconfigured /etc/hosts file can be quite grave.
>  >
>  > Prime example: If the hostname is not in /etc/hosts, sudo does not run
>  > which means that the problem can not be resolved without direct root
>  > login or single user mode. See also bug #473827
>
>
> I can't duplicate this, on a up to date lenny system. Even
>  commenting-out all the IP4 addresses didn't cause a problem.
>
>  Removing /etc/hostname *and* /etc/resolv.conf causes:
>
>  $ sudo -s
>  sudo: unable to resolve host orca
>  [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~#
>
>  But it still works.
>
>  Steve

When I encountered this, described briefly but a bit more in #473827,
I didn't see anything as long as I had network/internet access.
However, when totally offline, the bug triggered. Thus you could try
to pull out the network cable and try again. I'll have to come up with
a practical restore method before trying to reproduce it myself
though.

Ulrik



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