This is the Internet daemon which runs various services on demand when requests are detected on well-known ports.
/etc/inetd.conf:
You may want to disallow any services that you don't need. Examples are the finger, cfinger, etc. suite of utilities.
Probably should turn on one or other of the mail services (either pop-2 and pop-3 or imap), depending on which one you want to use.
The Web-based linux configuration program, linuxconf, may be useful.
As a general rule, do not run any service from inetd that has a service number greater than 1023 in /etc/services.
Here is a sample inetd.conf:
# # inetd.conf This file describes the services that will be available # through the INETD TCP/IP super server. To re-configure # the running INETD process, edit this file, then send the # INETD process a SIGHUP signal. # Version: @()/etc/inetd.conf 3.10 05/27/93 # # Authors: Original taken from BSD UNIX 4.3/TAHOE. # Fred N. van Kempen, <waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org> # # Modified for Debian Linux by Ian A. Murdock <imurdock@shell.portal.com> # # Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing <marc@redhat.com> # # <service_name> <sock_type> <proto> <flags> <user> <server_path> <args> # # Echo, discard, daytime, and chargen are used primarily for testing. # # To re-read this file after changes, just do a 'killall -HUP inetd' # echo stream tcp nowait root internal echo dgram udp wait root internal discard stream tcp nowait root internal discard dgram udp wait root internal daytime stream tcp nowait root internal daytime dgram udp wait root internal chargen stream tcp nowait root internal chargen dgram udp wait root internal time stream tcp nowait root internal time dgram udp wait root internal # # These are standard services. # ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.ftpd -l -a telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.telnetd # # Shell, login, exec, comsat and talk are BSD protocols. # shell stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.rshd login stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.rlogind #exec stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.rexecd #comsat dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.comsat #talk dgram udp wait nobody.tty /usr/sbin/tcpd in.talkd #ntalk dgram udp wait nobody.tty /usr/sbin/tcpd in.ntalkd #dtalk stream tcp wait nobody.tty /usr/sbin/tcpd in.dtalkd # # Pop and imap mail services et al # pop-2 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd ipop2d pop-3 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd ipop3d #imap stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd imapd # # The Internet UUCP service. # #uucp stream tcp nowait uucp /usr/sbin/tcpd \ # /usr/lib/uucp/uucico -l # # Tftp service is provided primarily for booting. Most sites run this # only on machines acting as "boot servers." Do not uncomment this # unless you need it. # #tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.tftpd #bootps dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd bootpd # # Finger, systat and netstat give out user information which may be # valuable to potential "system crackers." Many sites choose to disable # some or all of these services to improve security. # #finger stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd in.fingerd #cfinger stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.cfingerd #systat stream tcp nowait guest /usr/sbin/tcpd /bin/ps -auwwx #netstat stream tcp nowait guest /usr/sbin/tcpd \ # /bin/netstat -f inet # # Authentication # auth stream tcp wait root /usr/sbin/in.identd \ in.identd -e -o # # Linux configuration via HTTP. # linuxconf stream tcp wait root /bin/linuxconf linuxconf --http # # Rsync server. # rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsync --daemon # # End of inetd.conf