[CentOS] systemd equivalent of xinetd 'only_from' and 'banner_fail' attributes

[James Pearson]

James Pearson wrote:
> 
> I'm attempting to port an existing xinetd service from CentOS 6 to
> something equivalent with systemd for CentOS 7
> 
> The existing xinetd config uses the attributes 'only_from' to limit
> connections from a limited set of remote hosts and 'banner_fail' to
> print a suitable error message when access is denied
> 
> However, I can't find suitable 'equivalents' with systemd socket/service
> files on CentOS 7
> 
> It appears later versions of systemd supports the option IPAddressAllow=
> (which is what I think I need ?)
> 
> Does anyone know how to limit the remote hosts that can connect to a
> port with CentOS 7's systemd ?
> 
> Also, how to implement the equivalent of 'banner_fail' ? (not absolutely
> required, but nice to have)

I managed to do what is needed by creating a simple ExecStartPre script 
that checks if the $REMOTE_ADDR env var is in a list of my 'only_from' 
IP addresses - and exits with zero if it is or exits with non-zero if not

The non-zero status from the ExecStartPre script causes the whole 
service instance to fail

The ExecStartPre script also writes my 'banner_fail' message to stdout 
when it fails - which is what I want

James Pearson