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Ident
Ident, operating on port 113, is a protocol primarily used by Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers to obtain the identity of a client attempting to connect. It provides simple identification by querying the connecting user’s ident daemon, which reports the username associated with a TCP connection. Although its use has declined due to security concerns and shifts to newer authentication methods, ident remains noteworthy historically in facilitating user management and access control in IRC networks..
The Ident protocol, defined in RFC 1413, operates as an identification service that runs on the server-side of a network connection to report information about the user initiating that connection. When a user tries to establish a connection to a service such as an IRC server, the server sends a query back to the client’s ident daemon on port 113. The daemon responds with the username that owns the client-side port of the connection, allowing the server to associate the connection with a specific user account.
Technically, Ident is a simple, plaintext protocol relying on clear-text TCP queries and responses. Its simplicity enables it to be easily implemented and deployed; however, it does not provide authentication or validation beyond reporting the username. Typically, ident replies include user ID, operating system info, or an error message if the daemon is disabled or blocked by a firewall.
Today, Ident’s relevance has diminished due to security issues, firewall restrictions, and the adoption of more robust authentication systems such as SASL or OAuth for user identification. However, some legacy IRC servers and specialized applications might still request ident responses when establishing initial client sessions.