206 lines
5.4 KiB
Groff
206 lines
5.4 KiB
Groff
.\"
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.\" syncache - TCP SYN caching to handle SYN flood DoS.
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.\"
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.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.\" are met:
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.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
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.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
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.\"
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.\" $FreeBSD$
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.\"
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.Dd August 31, 2001
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.Dt SYNCACHE 4
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.Os
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm syncache , syncookies
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.Nd
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.Xr sysctl 8
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MIBs for controlling TCP SYN caching
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.Sh SYNOPSIS
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.Bl -item -compact
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.It
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.Nm sysctl Cm net.inet.tcp.syncookies
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.El
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.Pp
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.Bl -item -compact
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.It
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.Nm sysctl Cm net.inet.tcp.syncache.hashsize
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.It
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.Nm sysctl Cm net.inet.tcp.syncache.bucketlimit
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.It
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.Nm sysctl Cm net.inet.tcp.syncache.cachelimit
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.It
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.Nm sysctl Cm net.inet.tcp.syncache.rexmtlimit
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.It
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.Nm sysctl Cm net.inet.tcp.syncache.count
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.El
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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The
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.Nm
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.Xr sysctl 8
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MIB is used to control the TCP SYN caching in the system, which
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is intended to handle SYN flood Denial of Service attacks.
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.Pp
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When a TCP SYN segment is received on a port corresponding to a listen
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socket, an entry is made in the
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.Nm ,
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and a SYN,ACK segment is
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returned to the peer.
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The
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.Nm
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entry holds the TCP options from the initial SYN,
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enough state to perform a SYN,ACK retransmission, and takes up less
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space than a TCP control block endpoint.
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An incoming segment which contains an ACK for the SYN,ACK
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and matches a
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.Nm
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entry will cause the system to create a TCP control block
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with the options stored in the
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.Nm
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entry, which is then released.
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.Pp
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The
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.Nm
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protects the system from SYN flood DoS attacks by minimizing
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the amount of state kept on the server, and by limiting the overall size
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of the
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.Nm .
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.Pp
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.Nm Syncookies
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provides a way to virtually expand the size of the
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.Nm
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by keeping state regarding the initial SYN in the network.
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Enabling
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.Nm syncookies
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sends a cryptographic value in the SYN,ACK reply to
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the client machine, which is then returned in the client's ACK.
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If the corresponding entry is not found in the
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.Nm ,
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but the value
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passes specific security checks, the connection will be accepted.
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This is only used if the
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.Nm
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is unable to handle the volume of
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incoming connections, and a prior entry has been evicted from the cache.
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.Pp
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.Nm Syncookies
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have a certain number of disadvantages that a paranoid
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administrator may wish to take note of.
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Since the TCP options from the initial SYN are not saved, they are not
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applied to the connection, precluding use of features like window scale,
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timestamps, or exact MSS sizing.
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As the returning ACK establishes the connection, it may be possible for
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an attacker to ACK flood a machine in an attempt to create a connection.
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While steps have been taken to militate this risk, this may provide a way
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to bypass firewalls which filter incoming segments with the SYN bit set.
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.Pp
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The
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.Nm
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implements a number of variables in
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the
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.Va net.inet.tcp.syncache
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branch of the
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.Xr sysctl 3
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MIB.
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Several of these may be tuned by setting the corresponding
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variable in the
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.Xr loader 8 .
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.Bl -tag -width ".Va bucketlimit"
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.It Va hashsize
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Size of the
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.Nm
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hash table, must be a power of 2.
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Read-only, tunable via
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.Xr loader 8 .
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.It Va bucketlimit
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Limit on the number of entries permitted in each bucket of the hash table.
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This should be left at a low value to minimize search time.
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Read-only, tunable via
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.Xr loader 8 .
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.It Va cachelimit
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Limit on the total number of entries in the
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.Nm .
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Defaults to
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.Va ( hashsize No \(mu Va bucketlimit ) ,
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may be set lower to minimize memory
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consumption.
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Read-only, tunable via
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.Xr loader 8 .
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.It Va rexmtlimit
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Maximum number of times a SYN,ACK is retransmitted before being discarded.
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The default of 3 retransmits corresponds to a 15 second timeout, this value
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may be increased depending on the RTT to client machines.
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Tunable via
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.Xr sysctl 3 .
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.It Va count
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Number of entries present in the
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.Nm
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(read-only).
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.El
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.Pp
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Statistics on the performance of the
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.Nm
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may be obtained via
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.Xr netstat 1 ,
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which provides the following counts:
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.Bl -tag -width ".Li cookies received"
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.It Li "syncache entries added"
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Entries successfully inserted in the
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.Nm .
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.It Li retransmitted
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SYN,ACK retransmissions due to a timeout expiring.
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.It Li dupsyn
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Incoming SYN segment matching an existing entry.
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.It Li dropped
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SYNs dropped because SYN,ACK could not be sent.
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.It Li completed
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Successfully completed connections.
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.It Li "bucket overflow"
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Entries dropped for exceeding per-bucket size.
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.It Li "cache overflow"
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Entries dropped for exceeding overall cache size.
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.It Li reset
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RST segment received.
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.It Li stale
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Entries dropped due to maximum retransmissions or listen socket disappearance.
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.It Li aborted
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New socket allocation failures.
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.It Li badack
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Entries dropped due to bad ACK reply.
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.It Li unreach
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Entries dropped due to ICMP unreachable messages.
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.It Li "zone failures"
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Failures to allocate new
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.Nm
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entry.
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.It Li "cookies received"
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Connections created from segment containing ACK.
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.El
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.Sh SEE ALSO
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.Xr netstat 1 ,
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.Xr tcp 4 ,
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.Xr loader 8 ,
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.Xr sysctl 8
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.Sh HISTORY
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The existing
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.Nm
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implementation
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first appeared in
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.Fx 4.5 .
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The original concept of a
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.Nm
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originally appeared in
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.Bsx ,
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and was later modified by
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.Nx ,
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then further extended here.
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.Sh AUTHORS
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The
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.Nm
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code and manual page were written by
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.An Jonathan Lemon Aq jlemon@FreeBSD.org .
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