SAMS Teach Yourself Red Hat® Fedora™ 4 Linux® All in One

Q&A

Q1:

The X Window System manual page refers to another kind of security called magic cookie authentication, which is more secure than the xhost command. Why isn't it discussed here?

A1:

The magic cookie method of authentication is indeed more secure than the xhost command method, but it requires the use of several additional commands, as well as the use of a secure means of network communication to transfer the security token—usually ssh. When you use ssh to display applications remotely using the techniques outlined in this chapter, the magic cookie authentication method is automatically used for you anyway. In fact, ssh makes the process still more secure by encrypting all network transmissions. Because the magic cookie process is somewhat ...