Subject: Userid/pwd for 5250 telnet printer

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 14:24:16 -0700

Ref: RFC 1205, part 8. Enhanced Printer Emulation Support

     I would be grateful to get some clarification on userid/password
     options in printer sessions for 5250 telnet.

     Should a printer client send USER, IBMRSEED and IBMSUBSPW values?
     Pick one:   Always ___   Never ___   Sometimes ___

     I'm a bit confused whether these are needed or even desirable for
     printer sessions.  Part 8 doesn't mention them and its printer
     examples don't show them.  I tried sending them to a v4r2 machine and
     they seem to be ignored; even an invalid USER value results in a
     successful connection.  I'm beginning to think a printer client should
     never send them.

     Please forgive my ignorance, but how _does_ the AS/400 provide
     security for its printed output?  I had assumed a user could set the
     object authority on a printer device description to prevent others
     from using it.  But this doesn't seem to be the case; the tn5250e
     printer LUD is owned by QTCP which allows anyone to connect to it.  So
     what prevents anyone with a TCP stack from acquiring a printer device
     and then printing possibly sensitive data?  If this is already covered
     somewhere, then kindly give me a pointer to it, thanks.

     Barry Hansen
     [email-masked]