The /etc/nsswitch.conf file

Securing and Optimizing Linux: RedHat Edition -A Hands on Guide
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# 6.8. The `/etc/nsswitch.conf` file

The `/etc/nsswitch.conf` file is used to configure which services are to be used to determine information such as hostnames, password files, and group files. The last two ones, `password` files, and `group` files in our case are not used, since we don't use NIS services on our server. Thus, we will focus on the hosts line in this file.

Edit the `nsswitch.conf` file vi `/etc/nsswitch.conf` and change the hosts line to read:

              "hosts:      dns files"

Which means, for programs that want to resolve an address. They should use the dns feature first, and the `/etc/hosts` file if the DNS servers are not available or can't resolve the address.

Also, we would recommend deleting all instances of NIS services from each line of this file unless you are using NIS! The result should look like this:

                passwd:files
                shadow:files
                group:files
                hosts:dns files
                bootparams:files
                ethers:files
                netmasks:files
                networks:files
                protocols:files
                rpc:files
                services:files
                automount:files
                aliases:files

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