Mandatory use of allow is a terrible idea.

[GoogleCodeExporter]

DistCC 3.1 on Gentoo.

The requirement of --allow ensures that I can not automatically add new hosts 
using my existing firewall (shorewall) configuration.  The configuration I have 
notifies each cluster member of new hosts coming online.  Each host then adds 
the new host to their /etc/hosts and reloads the firewall config, which parses 
/etc/hosts in search of cluster members.  DistCC access is granted from all 
cluster members via this firewall configuration.

Not so much if I'm forced to use --allow.

Please change this from a blocking error to a strong warning.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by TheRealGothAlice@gmail.com on 16 Feb 2012 at 10:12

[GoogleCodeExporter]

"--allow" is mandatory for security reasons.  See 
<http://distcc.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/doc/web/security.html>.

This is needed because a distcc client can in principle execute arbitrary code 
on the distccd server and the distccd server can in principle execute arbitrary 
code on the distcc client.

If you have a private network for which you trust all of the hosts on your 
network, and you are not connected to the internet or you have a firewall that 
blocks connections on the distcc port from untrusted hosts, then you can use 
"--allow=0.0.0.0/32".

Original comment by fergus.h...@gmail.com on 16 Feb 2012 at 11:40

• Changed state: Invalid