RFC 1413 (rfc1413) - Page 2 of 8


Identification Protocol



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 1413                Identification Protocol            February 1993


3.  RESTRICTIONS

   Queries are permitted only for fully specified connections.  The
   query contains the local/foreign port pair -- the local/foreign
   address pair used to fully specify the connection is taken from the
   local and foreign address of query connection.  This means a user on
   address A may only query the server on address B about connections
   between A and B.

4.  QUERY/RESPONSE FORMAT

   The server accepts simple text query requests of the form:

             , 

   where  is the TCP port (decimal) on the target (where
   the "ident" server is running) system, and  is the
   TCP port (decimal) on the source (client) system.

   N.B - If a client on host A wants to ask a server on host B about a
   connection specified locally (on the client's machine) as 23, 6191
   (an inbound TELNET connection), the client must actually ask about
   6191, 23 - which is how the connection would be specified on host B.

      For example:

                 6191, 23

   The response is of the form

    ,  :  : 

   where , are the same pair as the
   query,  is a keyword identifying the type of response, and
    is context dependent.

   The information returned is that associated with the fully specified
   TCP connection identified by , ,
   , , where  and
    are the local and foreign IP addresses of the
   querying connection -- i.e., the TCP connection to the Identification
   Protocol Server.  ( and  are taken
   from the query.)

      For example:

         6193, 23 : USERID : UNIX : stjohns
         6195, 23 : ERROR : NO-USER



St. Johns