Configure scripts

Patrick McManus mcmanus at AppliedTheory.com
Mon May 24 08:49:13 EDT 1999


In a previous episode Christoph said...
:: 
:: I had heard there is a way to determine this by sniffing packets
:: from the system.   I.E.  Something in the Linux IP stack gives
:: away something like a finger print.  I don't know if this is true
:: or not.

there's not. deterministically anyhow. Linux does some things
differently than some other OSes (like sending data and FIN together
on a resend) but networking stack algorithms are changing on all
platforms far too fast to try and use that. it's not like there's a
host==linux field in the packet that would be authoritative.. you have
to go with the 'looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, must be a ...'
theory and that's not really sufficient because the linux networking
'duck' seems to change most every dot release in some fine manner or
another.

-P
-
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