Puzzle of the Day

The UNIX system reserves network ports numbered 1023 and below for root-owned processes only. User processes must use ports with higher numbers. So, if the source port from a remote host has a source port of 536, it must have originated with a process that was at one time root. This is a UNIX standard, not an Internet one.

What problems can this scheme cause in a heterogeneous network?


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Department of Computer Science
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA 95616-8562



Page last modified on 2/28/98