I have two Ubuntu 8.04 boxes, called BoxA and BoxB. These boxes are connected on a LAN whose network is 192.168.1.0/24. Each box runs two ssh daemons that are bound to ports 22 and 2222. On both boxes, tcpwrappers is running, and each box's /etc/hosts.allow look like:

ALL: 127.0.0.1, localhost, 192.168.1.0/24 : ALLOW

On each box, /etc/hosts.deny looks like:

All: PARANOID
ALL: ALL

From BoxA, sudo namp -A -p22,2222 localhost yields:

PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 4.7p1 Debian 8ubuntu1.2 (protocol 2.0)
2222/tcp open tcpwrapped

Also from BoxA, sudo nmap -A -p22,2222 BoxB yields

PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open tcpwrapped
2222/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 4.7p1 Debian 8ubuntu1.2 (protocol 2.0)

Notice how the reported service is flipped between ssh and tcpwrapped.

Now, from BoxB, sudo nmap -A -p22,2222 localhost yeilds

PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 4.7p1 Debian 8ubuntu1.2 (protocol 2.0)
2222/tcp open tcpwrapped


Again from BoxB, sudo nmap -A -p22,2222 BoxA yeilds

PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open tcpwrapped
2222/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 4.7p1 Debian 8ubuntu1.2 (protocol 2.0)


So I observe the same flipping behaviour from each box. What I don't understand is, why does nmap report one port as tcpwrapped, and the other as ssh with a complete version number? Any does it make any difference whether the scan is local or remote?

Ideally, I'd like nmap to show both ports 22 and 2222 as tcpwrapped on both boxes. How can that be done?

TIA.

Running nmap against your loopback device is generally a useless exercise.

Let's back up a moment -- in spite of what nmap says when being run from another box, have you confirmed that both sshd daemons (i.e. the one listening on tcp 22 and the one listening on tcp 2222) are indeed protected by tcp wrappers? You can check this, for example, by temporarily adding B to A's deny list. Check both daemons.

Problem solved. I had /etc/inetd.conf misconfigured on both boxes. Now they are fixed and I'm getting everything I wanted. nmap reports that the ports are open, but are tcpwrapped.

Thanks for your help!