Safari ignores /etc/hosts on macOS High Sierra - macos

I tried to use /etc/hosts file to redirect some websites to localhost.
To do so, I opened it in terminal using sudo nano /etc/hosts then I modified the file, and saved it. As the last step I flushed the DNS cache with sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder.
Here's what my hosts file looks like:
$ cat /etc/hosts
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 somethig.com
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
This simply doesn't work. I tried to reboot, without luck. I also did a lot of research but did not find any working answers on the internet. Does the OS still use this file, or will this never really work?
I'm using macOS 10.13.

I believe that you need to also override the IPv6 address for "something.com". Do this by adding the additional line "::1 somethig.com". So far as I can figure out, restarting Safari is also required. (You may also need to flush the DNS cache via the method you mentioned.)

Related

Redirect port and ip on macOS

I'm working on a mac with OS 10.13.6.
I want to redirect all requests to 10.20.154.24:1111 made from my computer go to localhost:8080.
I read about pf and pfctl, but could not make this work.
I thought to run this, but it didn't work...
echo "
rdr pass inet proto tcp from 127.0.0.1 to 10.20.154.24 port 1111 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8080
" | sudo pfctl -ef -
Found a solution. I had to make an alias out of the IP before setting the redirecting command
sudo ifconfig lo0 10.20.154.24 alias
Edit the hosts file using the command sudo nano /etc/hosts. You will need to enter your password.
Add you IP address that you want to redirect (10.20.154.24:1111) to the end of the line that starts with 127.0.0.1 (it should be the first line that isn’t commented out with a #). Anything added to that line will redirect to localhost. Make sure that every entry on that line is separated by a space.
To exit, save it with crtl+o and then exit the editor with crtl+x.

/etc/hosts has no effect in different browsers

I want to block some time consuming websites on my macOS.
Therefore I added some entries in /etc/hosts like
127.0.0.1 youtube.com
I reset the DNS Cache with sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder.
ping youtube.com seems to work, as the respons comes from 127.0.0.1.
But all my installed Browsers still shows youtube.com. Is there anything I missed?

dnsmasq does not resolve directly specified name

I have trouble with dnsmasq - it does not resolve directly defined name.
$ sudo dnsmasq -d -A /test/172.17.0.2 --log-queries &
dnsmasq: started, version 2.48 cachesize 150
dnsmasq: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt DBus no-I18N DHCP TFTP "--bind-interfaces with SO_BINDTODEVICE"
dnsmasq: read /etc/hosts - 2 addresses
$ ping test
ping: unknown host test
What is wrong?
You only set up a server. Your system's resolver (which is used by ping, your browser, and all other applications on your machine) must first know that this server exists and that it should be used. This can be done by modifying /etc/resolv.conf. For first, make sure, this line is in that file:
nameserver 127.0.0.1
But beware: modern systems auto-generate this file and potentially overwrite your changes. So watch out for "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND" comments in that file and instead do what's recommended in the file.

Mac OSX changing /etc/hosts has no effect even after killing mDNSResolver

I have not had a similar issue in Windows (10) and nothing I've searched on docs seems to indicate why, if this does not work, that that is the case
I open up terminal and edit /etc/hosts (which I've done many times on a PC and a few years back on an OSX too)
Just for grins if that doesn't work I type in sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Then for more grins I reboot
This has absolutely no effect. Can anyone point me to why? Thanks.
UPDATE: The embarrassing fact of the matter is that the lines I entered in /etc/hosts were in reverse, i.e. domain first, as:
mydomain.com 192.168.33.10 #wrong
192.168.33.10 mydomain.com #what it should have been
The accepted answer, however, is well-written and appreciated.
I've seen two common problems with using /etc/hosts on macOS (/OS X):
Incorrect formatting: each entry in the /etc/hosts file must be an IP address followed by a space or tab, followed by the name, then a linefeed at the end of the line. Try printing the hosts file with cat -vet /etc/hosts to make normally invisible characters visible. Each line should look like one of these:
127.0.0.1^Iwww.example.com$
127.0.0.1 www.example.com$
(The "^I" is a tab, and the "$" is the linefeed at the end of the line.) It's also ok if the entry has multiple names listed (also separated by spaces or tabs).
If you see a "^M" (carriage return) just before the "$", you have DOS/Windows formatted text and you need to remove the carriage return(s).
Incorrect testing: Don't use the command-line tools dig, host, and nslookup, since they all test DNS directly and therefore bypass the /etc/hosts file. Browsers sometimes cache things, which can give misleading results. The "right" way to test the system's name resolution system is with the dscacheutil command:
dscacheutil -q host -a name www.example.com
...but since that's annoyingly verbose, I tend to just use ping, and see what address it says it's going to test.
I came across this thread to try and solve the same issue on macOS Catalina and was not successful. This is because macOS Catalina has another thing going; it will only make changes in the hosts file effective if you change them as the root user (this is not done with the sudo command) !!
By default there is not a root user on your system so here's a link with a step by step guide to do so:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204012
then I was able to:
su
nano /etc/hosts
for more information:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250805304
Below steps worked for me
flushing DNS sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder (or kill DNS in activity monitor and let it reload)
2.Changing read-write permissions of /etc/host file should be -rw-r--r-- .Use commands $ sudo chmod g+r /etc/hosts and $ sudo chmod o+r /etc/hosts
Adding entry u want to add in host file with ipxxx.xx.xx.com
moved these 2 lines in the end
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost Administrators-MacBook-Pro.local
Step 1 again

Adding /etc/hosts entry to host machine on vagrant up

Is it possible for one to modify files on the host machine during the vagrant up process? For example, adding an entry to the host machine's /etc/hosts file to avoid having to do this manually?
The solution is to use vagrant-hostsupdater
vagrant plugin install vagrant-hostsupdater
This plugin adds an entry to your /etc/hosts file on the host system.
On up and reload commands, it tries to add the information, if its not
already existant in your hosts file. If it needs to be added, you will
be asked for an administrator password, since it uses sudo to edit the
file.
On halt, suspend and destroy, those entries will be removed again.
OK, so now the guy sitting next to you at the coffee shop can most likely ssh to port 2222 (EDIT: changed on newer versions of vagrant, unless you explicitly enable external access) on your computer, login as vagrant with the insecure key, modify your Vagrantfile, since it's mounted read-write and owned by the vagrant user, insert arbitrary ruby code to run in the host environment, and now it looks like they've got root access on the host environment as well. Brilliant.
I hope people run firewalls on their development machines.
EDIT:
So after writing the above, I bugged the author of Vagrant, the default has been changed so that port 2222 is not open by default on the external interface. Big improvement (though still something to be careful of, since external access is often opened up for various reasons).
So, having put in effort to get the situation fixed since making this comment, I'm now getting down votes, apparently because the comment is out of date. Damn. It was correct when written.
EDIT:
In response to Steve Buzonas, the point is that if there's any likelhihood of the virtual machine being compromised then giving the vagrant up process elevated permissions represents a serious risk to the security of the host environment, and also being able to modify the /etc/hosts environment file is dangerous, even without general root access. As I've pointed out, vagrant's approach to keeping the VM secure is not particularly rigorous.
I don't want to depend on some plug in to vagrant. It should be standard feature in Vagrant!!!! Untill then I use a shell script to propagate VM's in my cluster of new VMs. The key lines are :
# Obtain the hostkey based on the IP-address and add it to the known_host list
ssh-keyscan -t ecdsa ${START}.${OFFSET} >> /home/vagrant/.ssh/known_hosts
# obtain the hostname, because you might not know it yet, with the IP address:
EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME=`ssh ${START}'.'${OFFSET} 'hostname'`
# obtain the key ot the new other VM based on hostname and also add to known_hosts
ssh-keyscan -t ecdsa ${EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME} >> /home/vagrant/.ssh/known_hosts
# so now you have the IP address and the corresponding hostname
# add to /etc/hosts without being asked for "yes/no"
echo ${START}'.'${OFFSET}' '${EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME} >> /etc/hosts
Where IPADRRESS is the IP address of the master VM in the cluster with several slave node VM's with succeedding ip-addresses. (IPADDRESS=IPADDRESS + 1 untill no successfull ping)
IPADDRESS=`ip addr show eth1 | grep 'inet ' | cut -d ' ' -f 6 | cut -d '/' -f1`
START=`echo ${IPADDRESS} | cut -d '.' -f1,2,3`
OFFSET=`echo ${IPADDRESS} | cut -d '.' -f4`
And then I loop trough the next IP addresses until no more succesfull pings.
I do not want to hardcode anything (ip-address or hostname), but to find out itself.
Resulting /etc/hosts file (after
sort /etc/hosts | uniq > /tmp/hosts.uniq && sudo sh -c 'mv /tmp/hosts.uniq /etc/hosts'
:
[vagrant#master ~]$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
127.0.0.1 master.RHEL70.local master
192.168.1.50 master.RHEL70.local
192.168.1.51 node01.RHEL70.local
192.168.1.52 node02.RHEL70.local
::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
Previously I didn't know how to vagrant edit my etc/host file. But when i reinstalled window and vagrant, this feature disappeared.

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