Puzzle for February 6, 2006

The UNIX and Linux systems reserve 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 and Linux standard, not an Internet one.

What problems can this scheme cause in a heterogeneous network?


Version of February 5, 2006 at 10:20 PM
You can also obtain a PDF version of this.