There isn't necessarily just a single user on the other end of a PPP connection.
Perhaps I should have phrased it as "single user network connection" and not "PPP". I'm less concerned with the PPP as a protocol than as its modern usage to connect the dialup user.
And how do you tell the difference between a single user connection and multi-user connection? They both use PPP. Are you going to make all the Linux users out there have to start negotiating with their ISPs just to allow them to be on?
Many things will break if the actual user and the user that PPP intercepted identd asserts do not match.
Oh?
Yup. IRC bots, for instance. They expect certain specific information to grant authority, and if the PPP server substitutes it, it can't be correct all the time on systems with two or more users since the PPP server won't know which user is on which port (without actually going to that machine to ask ... but then what's the point).
Providing such information may be a violation of confidentiality if
Login string. e.g. username.
Dialup account id? Unfortunately this is usually also the e-mail address by just appending @isp-domain.net and thus giving out tons of addresses to spammers. I won't subject my customers to this.
Because the PPP access device cannot know, unless it also tracks all the traffic involved, what ports are in fact in use, it would have to give
If l2 is up, it's up. That's fairly basic...
So if I request an ident on port 15421, is the PPP server going to answer it even though, there is in fact no active port 15421 on that machine? You want PPP servers to track all those SYN and RST?
I believe you misunderstand the purpose of identd. It was intended to ... Nope...
So you do understand that the data wasn't intended to be trusted if you have no trust of the machine (and certainly most of them out there cannot be trusted).
Why do you want this data?
My personal crusade against packet monkeys, spammers, and irresponsible admins who support them by pretending that the net is free for all to abuse.
I applaud the goals. I don't think this is a viable mechanism to achieve them. BTW, I blocked access to SMTP other than to my own servers for all my dialup non-LAN customers. I don't like abuse, and won't put up with it, either from my customers, or to them. But this identd idea is not something I will do to my customers. The cure is worse than the disease. The answer is simple. Don't trust identd responses. Just don't ask for that data and then you don't have to worry about it being forged. -- Phil Howard | no7way44@noplace5.org ads2suck@dumbads8.com a4b3c4d5@no0place.org phil | no6spam2@spam3mer.com end3it15@no16ads4.edu stop6it8@dumb9ads.net at | end6it02@s0p9a9m3.edu stop2ads@nowhere8.org end8ads7@spammer1.com ipal | no8way90@no86ads8.net blow3me2@dumb9ads.net w5x2y2z9@spam8mer.com dot | stop1020@spammer5.edu stop7317@no5place.net no4spam7@anyplace.com net | eat55me9@spammer5.org no71ads8@lame9ads.net suck4it6@dumb7ads.org