rlogin - how's it work?

[Chris Rhodes]

Okay, before my rather naive question, a qualifier: I've only been
able to use rlogin on a system where 'localhost' was the only choice,
or where I have had no accounts on any of the adjacent hosts...

Anyway, how does rlogin get away with logging you in on another system
without going through the password prompting?  What exactly is the
program run on the remote host - login, or a replacement?

Am I correct in guessing that the remote host reads your .rhosts file?

And (this really is a theoretical question as I have no desire to
do this) wouldn't getting into your friend "larry"'s account on an
adjacent host without having to supply the password be as easy as
asking the administrator of your system to change your login name
to "larry" and then rlogin'ing?

Thanks.

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=  D. Chris Rhodes      uucp: ...lll-crg!csuh!shark or lll-crg!csustan!shark  =
=  Tiburon Systems      Unix and MS-DOS Applications, for now.....            =
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