Identd Setup - ArchWiki

# Identd Setup

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The Ident service as specified by RFC 1413 is mostly used by various IRC networks and the occasional old FTP server to ask a remote server which user is making a connection. This method is quite untrustworthy, as the remote host can simply choose to lie.

So you have two choices:

1. Tell the truth (see #oidentd below)
2. Tell a little white lie (see nullidentmod or nullidentd below)

## oidentd

See oidentd.

If all went well, you should have the auth service running on port 113. A good way of checking this is by installing nmap (if you do not have it already) and typing

    $ nmap localhost

## nullIdentdMod

1. Install the nullidentdmod-gitAUR package.

2. Enable `nullidentdmod.socket` on systemd.

3. Start `nullidentdmod.socket` on systemd.

4. Check if is working here.

As is nullidentdmod will return a random userid.

### Customization

1. Copy the unit for customization

    # cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/nullidentdmod@.service /etc/systemd/system/

2. Edit `/etc/systemd/system/nullidentdmod@.service` At line 6, write desired userid

    [Unit]
    Description=NullidentdMod service

    [Service]
    User=nobody
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/nullidentdmod <userid>
    StandardInput=socket
    StandardOutput=socket

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

Obviously where <userid> you put your custom userid.

4. Check if is working here

## nullIdent

This Ident server is capable of only returning the same name for any query. With a quick change to a single line of code, it can be customized to return any name you can think. One use for such a simple service would be for IRC client connections to ensure a degree of privacy (remote IRC server and users do not know your username) as well as allowing a small degree of 'vanity plating' for use in IRC channels.

The original code suffered link rot, but may now be found on github, at this address https://github.com/dxtr/nullidentd.

1. clone the source to a directory of your choice using git.

    git clone https://github.com/dxtr/nullidentd

2. Edit line 86 of nullidentd.c to your liking. use any text editor of your choice

example:

    nano nullidentd.c

3. Compile the binary.

    make

4. Install Binary You can move it to any location of your choice of course, but the FileSystem Hierarchy states the nullidentd binary should live in `/usr/local/sbin`

    # mv nullidentd /usr/local/sbin

### systemd activation

Below are two files you need to create under `/etc/systemd/system/`

1. identd@.service

    [Unit]
    Description=per connection null identd

    [Service]
    User=nobody
    ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/nullidentd
    StandardInput=socket
    StandardOutput=socket

2. ident.socket

    [Unit]
    Description=socket for ident

    [Socket]
    ListenStream=113
    Accept=yes

    [Install]
    WantedBy=sockets.target

3. inform SystemD of the new files

    # systemctl daemon-reload

4. Test that the socket is listening sucessfully

    $ systemctl status ident.socket

this should yield output similar to the below

    ident.socket - socket for ident
       Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/ident.socket; enabled)
       Active: active (listening) since Fri 2014-01-24 02:30:53 WST; 30 seconds ago
       Listen: [::]:113 (Stream)
     Accepted: 0; Connected: 0

    Jan 24 02:30:53 HOSTNAME systemd[1]: Listening on socket for ident.

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