what is the use of libwrap

[vickey_20]

I have come across this thing called as libwrap many times now but dont really understand what it is or what it does??

[Rubberman]

Here is the wikipedia entry: libwrap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[vickey_20]

thans for replying I unserstood the use of wrappers , but can you put a little light on where authentication is performed when the user logges in remotely?

[Rubberman]

I'm not that familiar with it, but as far as I understand, the provides some host authentication when you try to connect to a server. Ie, is that host (computer) allowed to connect to the server with telnet, ftp, or whatever. There should be a configuration file on the server somewhere (usually in /etc, but not always) that tells the server what hosts and services are allowed. Once connected, the normal user authentication routines are used for user/password authentication.

Again, I could be totally off-base here, but I don't think I'm outside the park.

[Rubberman]

Here is a link to Red Hat documentation about TCP wrappers and libwrap: TCP Wrappers and xinetd