unauthenticated user

[John Guerrero]

Hello,
I have had a few systems that began to generate max connection errors. When I
run a processlist, there are a lot of the following entries:

 5899 | unauthenticated user | xx.xx.xx.xx | NULL       | Connect | NULL |
Reading from net | NULL             |

When I restart mysql the entries are the same, except for the "State" colums.
They are populated with "login". 

These servers are Redhat 3 systems and have the 2.4.21-9.0.3.EL kernel. 
Has anyone seen these "unauthenticated user" entries and where they come from?
Thanks,
John G.