finger
Shares rank 38 of 86 privilege escalation tools by recommenders
Old Unix command for looking up logged-in users; people like its simple single-file setup and nostalgia. Critics note it can't run behind a CDN.
Old Unix command for looking up logged-in users; people like its simple single-file setup and nostalgia. Critics note it can't run behind a CDN.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
Other privilege escalation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other privilege escalation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 86 privilege escalation tools, rankedWhat people said
7 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I still think it has immense utility”
“FINGER IS VERY IMPORTANT!”
“very fond memories of the finger command”
“The best part was you could `finger @machine` and it would list all the users currently logged on”
“the single-file setup of finger is cuter than a whole repo directory”
“Impossible to run practically if your site is on CDN. Finger connects to the A record IP directly.”
“Said I shouldn't use it unless i had some business need, would need to do a request apparently.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.