[comp.unix.admin] gethostbyaddr: messages on Sun running resolver

cornell@csl.dl.nec.com (Cornell Kinderknecht) (03/17/91)

I'm running resolver libraries on a Sun server.  When I get mail from
some sites or a telnet is done from some sites, I get a message similar
to the following at the console.
	gethostbyaddr: <host.name> != <ip.addr>
Where <host.name> is the  abc.abc.abc.abc name
and <ip.addr> is the 123.123.123.123 ip number.

!= implies not equal however the ip number and host name that are given
are indeed the correct corresponding ipnumber and hostname (they are 
resolved correctly when you get ipnumber from hostname).

Does anyone know what I can do to either 1) correct this or 2) suppress
the message?

Cornell Kinderknecht
cornell@csl.dl.nec.com

stealth@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mike Pelletier) (03/23/91)

In article <cornell.669203150@texas> cornell@csl.dl.nec.com (Cornell Kinderknecht) writes:
>
>I'm running resolver libraries on a Sun server.  When I get mail from
>some sites or a telnet is done from some sites, I get a message similar
>to the following at the console.
>	gethostbyaddr: <host.name> != <ip.addr>
>Where <host.name> is the  abc.abc.abc.abc name
>and <ip.addr> is the 123.123.123.123 ip number.

I've gotten a similar problem from certain sites on a telnet service I've
been running on my Sun SparcStation...

>!= implies not equal however the ip number and host name that are given
>are indeed the correct corresponding ipnumber and hostname (they are 
>resolved correctly when you get ipnumber from hostname).

This puzzled me as well...  I managed to find out that the error results
from the following process:

gethostbyaddr takes the IP address of the incoming connection,
	say it's 35.1.2.3, and does a reverse lookup for it to get
	a hostname.
It then takes the hostname it got and does a forward lookup to
	get an IP address.

If the IP address returned by the lookup and the IP address of the connection
don't match, it logs the above error and drops the connection.  This could
result from an incorrect entry in the nameservice database, dynamically
allocated addresses, and particularly, spoofed connections, which is what
this process is trying to weed out.  I don't know of any way to get around
it aside from not calling gethostbyaddr(), does anyone else have suggestions?

rcsmith@anagld.analytics.com (Ray Smith) (03/23/91)

cornell@csl.dl.nec.com (Cornell Kinderknecht) writes:


>I'm running resolver libraries on a Sun server.  When I get mail from
>some sites or a telnet is done from some sites, I get a message similar
>to the following at the console.
>	gethostbyaddr: <host.name> != <ip.addr>
>Where <host.name> is the  abc.abc.abc.abc name
>and <ip.addr> is the 123.123.123.123 ip number.

>!= implies not equal however the ip number and host name that are given
>are indeed the correct corresponding ipnumber and hostname (they are 
>resolved correctly when you get ipnumber from hostname).

>Does anyone know what I can do to either 1) correct this or 2) suppress
>the message?

>Cornell Kinderknecht
>cornell@csl.dl.nec.com

Don't know if this is what your problem is by here are some things
that I archived a while back regarding gethostbyaddr.

Hope it helps,
Ray

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Subject: Re: nres_gethostbyaddr error in /var/adm/messages
Date: 30 Aug 90 09:17:56 EDT (Thu)
From: uunet!aecom.yu.edu!naftoli (Robert N. Berlinger)
On Aug 29, 15:57, rhoward@msd.gatech.edu wrote:
> To: sun-nets@umiacs.umd.edu (Sun-Nets)
> Subject: nres_gethostbyaddr error in /var/adm/messages
> 
> I'm getting some weird messages in my /var/adm/messages file.  They
> read:
> 
> <hostname> syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: <some.long.hostname> != <some.IP.num>
> 
> for a number of hosts.
> 
> SS1+  le0 and le1
> OS: 4.1
> Running NIS (yp)
> NIS databases built with -b option.
> 
> What does this mean?  I haven't been having problems contacting these
> machines.  What is the nature of the message?
>-- End of excerpt from rhoward@msd.gatech.edu

Apparently it's a bug in ypserv.  Here is information that Sun sent to me
about the problem.

>From lmc@Sun.COM Thu Aug  9 10:47:32 1990

The following is information on the nres_gethostbyaddr error messages:
-Lorraine McLane
 (415) 336-5214
  e-mail - lmc@sun.com

1039839: Synopsis:  nres_gethostbyaddr logs misleading messages to console
 
1039839: Description:
1039839:        When using DNS in conjunction with NIS, customer sees
1039839:        messages logged to the console like : 
1039839:
1039839:        nres_gethostbyaddr: xxx.yyy.zzz != aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
1039839:        Where xxx.yyy.zzz is the fully qualified hostname, and
1039839:        aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the CORRECT IP address for xxx.yyy.zzz
1039839:
1039839:        Setup configuration has been verified with nslookup by
1039839:        doing a qtype=any, and doing
1039839:        > ddd.ccc.bbb.aaa.in-addr.arpa
1039839:
1039839:        What's more, is that the syslog level for this message 
1039839:        is at LOG_CRIT (critical). This should probably be a
1039839:        syslog level of no higher than LOG_NOTICE
1039839:
1039839:        crit    For warnings about critical  conditions,  such  as
1039839:                hard device errors.
1039839:
1039839:        notice  For conditions that are not error conditions,  but
1039839:                may require special handling.
1039839: Work around:
1039839:        Ignore the messages, since they're not really errors, or
1039839:        turn off logging of critical error messages.
1039839: Suggested fix:
1039839:        Change LOG_CRIT to LOG_NOTICE in nres_gethostbyaddr(),
1039839:        else make everything compiled with -lnres have a secure
1039839:        or debug option with hooks into the nres_gethostbyaddr
1039839:        routine of asynch_resolver/ngethostbyname.c to enable or
1039839:        disable these messages.
1039839:        Leave it up to the network administrators to decide
1039839:        whether or not these are critical errors.

1039839:This problem appear to be in the way YPserv's use of the resolver
routines
1039839:interact with the nameserver routines, as it is not duplicatable with
1039839:other resolver based utilities. I suspect a timing problem since the
1039839:address does in fact match the hostname in all reported cases.

1039839: Public Summary:
1039839:        DNS used in conjunction with NIS may generate syslog messages
1039839:        to the console something like :
1039839:        nres_gethostbyaddr: some.name.org != its.correct.IP.addr

-- 
Robert N. Berlinger                 |Domain: naftoli@aecom.yu.edu        
Supervisor of Systems Support       |UUCP: ...uunet!aecom!naftoli
Scientific Computing Center         |CompuServe: 76067.1094@compuserve.com
Albert Einstein College of Medicine |AppleLink: D3913@applelink.apple.com
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Date: Thu, 30 Aug 90 10:10:59 PDT
From: uunet!srv.PacBell.COM!david (David St. Pierre)
Subject: Re: nres_gethostbyaddr error in /var/adm/messages
On Aug 30,  9:17am, Robert N. Berlinger wrote:

	REPEATED MESSAGE DELETED TO SAVE SPACE

I think I filed this problem with Sun a few months ago. Initially,
I (probably naively) agreed that they shouldn't be CRIT errors. But
to suggest that one *ignore* critical errors isn't very good advice.
(And if they fixed the bug it probably *should* be a critical error.)

This problem shows up for in-bound ftp, UUCP over TCP/IP. It doesn't seem
to happen for in-bound telnet. I suspect that most people would link nntp
with the -lresolv libraries. It shows up in traceroute, netstat -r, etc.
if the host entry isn't local.

The problem seems to go away if the in-addr entry is currently in the
cache. If the local name server has to send the query out to another
name server, the problem seems to show up.

Personally, I find this problem awfully annoying. I got Sun to ship me
a copy of ftpd linked with -lresolv and the problems for that program
went away. I wish they would get this one fixed and a patch sent out!!!

-- 
David St. Pierre 415/823-6800   {att,bellcore,sun,ames,decwrl}!pacbell!david

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From: "Leonardo C. Topa" <uunet!ai.mit.edu!leo>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 90 10:35:35 EDT
Subject: SUMMARY: problems with nres_gethostbyaddr
Some time ago I asked:

    Date: Wed, 10 Oct 90 12:20:50 EDT
    Subject: problems with nres_gethostbyaddr
    
    Someone brought this up some time ago, but I think that the suggested
    fix doesn't work. On a sun 3/280 running 4.1 I keep getting the
    following messages:
    
    Oct  9 14:10:40 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: ramon.bio.columbia.edu != 128.59.128.2
    Oct  9 16:01:30 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: WCCF.MIT.EDU!= 18.88.0.128
    Oct  9 17:00:44 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: E40-008-6.MIT.EDU != 18.71.0.18
    Oct  9 17:38:50 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: NEANDERTHAL.MIT.EDU != 18.88.0.88
    Oct  9 18:34:20 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: OSLER.MIT.EDU != 18.88.0.46
    Oct  9 22:48:57 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: Chuckles.Think.COM != 131.239.53.145
    Oct  9 23:40:40 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: gargoyle.uchicago.edu != 128.135.20.100
    
    I thought the fix is to have the "-l" flag in the Makefile that
    creates the hosts.byname yellow page map, but this doesn't seem to
    cure the problem.
    
    Please answer to me directly and I'll summarize.
    
    -Leonardo Topa

A little overdue, but here is the summary of what I found. Devid St. Pierre 
says there is now a patch available from Sun for this, but I cannot check
because right now our campus network is having problems with outside
hosts. Is sun.com the hostname to check?

-----------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 90 11:59:21 PDT
From: "David St. Pierre" <david@srv.pacbell.com>

I was just looking at Sun's online bugs data base today and noticed
that the 4.1 problem with syslog reporting spurious "errors" now has
a patch available. The patch was dated 15 Oct.
-----------------------------------------------

Other answers were:

-----------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 90 12:49:46 -0600
From: Jeff Nieusma <nieusma@eclipse.colorado.edu>

there is no reason for you to get the messages:

Name:    ramon.bio.columbia.edu
Address:  128.59.128.2
2.128.59.128.in-addr.arpa       host name = ramon.bio.columbia.edu

Name:    WCCF.MIT.EDU
Address:  18.88.0.128
128.0.88.18.IN-ADDR.ARPA        host name = WCCF.MIT.EDU

Name:    E40-008-6.MIT.EDU
Address:  18.71.0.18
18.0.71.18.IN-ADDR.ARPA host name = E40-008-6.MIT.EDU

[...]

I can't offer a fix for you since we aren't using NIS anymore.  I just
removed NIS and am using libc.so with the resolver built in.
                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                  (how do you do that? -LCT)
-----------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 90 11:54:56 PDT
From: mike@inti.lbl.gov (Michael Helm)

A recompiled ypserv (with the noisy log messages set
to a different syslog priority) does the trick.
If you have source I think I can arrange to send you
the patches; if you don't maybe we can work something out
for the binary.  Luck, ==mwh
-----------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 90 21:16:18 -0400
From: henryc@oar.net
In article <9010101620.AA00805@vivaldi> you write:
>Someone brought this up some time ago, but I think that the suggested
>fix doesn't work. On a sun 3/280 running 4.1 I keep getting the
>following messages:
>Oct  9 23:40:40 hippocampus syslog: nres_gethostbyaddr: gargoyle.uchicago.edu
!= 128.135.20.100

Some would view them as a feature of 4.1.  Bend over and smile.  Don't
worry about them, really!

Henry
henryc@oar.net
-----------------------------------------------

The following people asked that I let them know if I find a fix:

bauer%cns.UCalgary.CA@ucnet.ucalgary.ca
casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik)
eap@bu-pub.bu.edu (Eric A Pearce)

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Archived date: 901108 Y90 M11 D08

From: Mike Jipping <uunet!frodo.cs.hope.edu!jipping>
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 1990 06:44:09 EST
Subject: "nres_gethostbyaddr !=" errors SOLVED!
Ever since upgrading to SunOS 4.1, we have been inundated with messages
on the console of our Internet gateway machine like

      nres_gethostbyaddr: some.name.org != its.correct.IP.addr

Judging by the traffic on sun-managers, others have hit on this and have
gone crazy trying to get rid of them.  

About a week ago, I received a patch from Sun to fix this.  There is no
REAL problem, the messages are erroneous.  The fix is a new "ypserv"
program.  I have included a snippet from the README file below after the
signature. 

These patches are available on smaug.cs.hope.edu (35.197.146.1) in
~ftp/pub as 

   -rw-r--r--  1 root        39626 Nov  7 06:37 nres_patch_sun3.tar.Z
   -rw-r--r--  1 root        47160 Nov  7 06:37 nres_patch_sun4.tar.Z

Each file contains the README file and an architecture-specific patch.

We've been running this for about a week with no new messages.  Hope
others find this useful.

      Mike Jipping
      Hope College Department of Computer Science
      jipping@cs.hope.edu  (BITNET: JIPPING@HOPE)

      "Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck
       is watching you."                    
                                               -- Gary Larson

==================================================================
Patch-ID# 100141-01
Keywords: NIS DNS nres_gethostbyaddr messages console
Synopsis: nres_gethostbyaddr logs misleading messages to console
Date: 15-Oct-90 
 
SunOS release: 4.1
 
Unbundled Product: 
 
Unbundled Release:
 
BugId's fixed with this patch: 1039839

Architectures for which this patch is available: sun3, sun4

Obsoleted by: 

Problem Description: 

        DNS used in conjunction with NIS may generate syslog messages
        to the console something like :
        nres_gethostbyaddr: some.name.org != its.correct.IP.addr

-- 
Ray Smith          Computer Sciences Corporation - Systems Engineering Division
                   Formerly Analytics, Inc.  
rcsmith@analytics.com -or- {uunet,aplcen,wb3ffv,sundc}!anagld!rcsmith -or- 
RCSmith@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL