saslauthd(8)


SASLAUTHD(8)

NAME

     saslauthd - sasl authentication server

SYNOPSIS

     saslauthd -a authmech [-Tvdchlr] [-O option]  [-m  mux_path]

[-n threads]

     [-s size] [-t timeout]

DESCRIPTION

     saslauthd is a daemon process that handles plaintext authen-
tication re-
     quests on behalf of the SASL library.

     The server fulfills two roles: it isolates all code  requir-
ing superuser
     privileges into a single process, and it can be used to pro-
vide proxy au-
     thentication services to clients that do not understand SASL
based au-
     thentication.

     saslauthd  should  be  started  from the system boot scripts
when going to
     multi-user mode. When running against a protected  authenti-
cation database
     (e.g.  the shadow mechanism), it must be run as the superus-
er.

  Options
     Options named by lower-case letters configure the server it-
self.
     Upper-case  options control the behavior of specific authen-
tication
     mechanisms; their applicability to a particular  authentica-
tion mechanism
     is described in the AUTHENTICATION MECHANISMS section.

     -a authmech
             Use  authmech  as the authentication mechanism. (See
the
             AUTHENTICATION MECHANISMS section below.)  This  pa-
rameter is man-
             datory.

     -O option
             A  mechanism specific option (e.g. rimap hostname or
config file
             path)

     -H hostname
             The remote host to be contacted by the rimap authen-
tication
             mechanism. (Depricated, use -O instead)

     -m path
             Use path as the pathname to the named socket to lis-
ten on for
             connection requests. This must be an absolute  path-
name, and MUST
             NOT  include the trailing "/mux".  Note that the de-
fault for this
             value is "/var/state/saslauthd" (or what was  speci-
fied at compile
             time) and that this directory must exist for saslau-
thd to func-
             tion.

     -n threads
             Use threads processes for responding to  authentica-
tion queries.
             (default:  5)   A  value  of zero will indicate that
saslauthd should
             fork an  individual  process  for  each  connection.
This can solve
             leaks that occur in some deployments..

     -s size
             Use  size  as  the  table size of the hash table (in
kilobytes)

     -t timeout
             Use timeout as the expiration time of the  authenti-
cation cache
             (in seconds)

     -T      Honour time-of-day login restrictions.

     -h      Show usage information

     -c      Enable cacheing of authentication credentials

     -l       Disable  the use of a lock file for controlling ac-
cess to ac-
             cept().

     -r      Combine the realm with the login (with an  '@'  sign
in between).
             e.g.   login:  "foo" realm: "bar" will get passed as
login:
             "foo@bar".   Note  that  the  realm  will  still  be
passed, which may
             lead to unexpected behavior.

     -v       Print  the version number and available authentica-
tion mechanisms
             on standard error, then exit.

     -d      Debugging mode.

  Logging
     saslauthd  logs  it's  activities  via  syslogd  using   the
LOG_AUTH facility.

AUTHENTICATION MECHANISMS

     saslauthd  supports one or more "authentication mechanisms",
dependent
     upon the facilities provided  by  the  underlying  operating
system.  The
     mechanism  is  selected  by the -aho flag from the following
list of
     choices:

     dce        (AIX)

                Authenticate using the DCE  authentication  envi-
ronment.

     getpwent   (All platforms)

                Authenticate  using  the getpwent() library func-
tion. Typically
                this authenticates  against  the  local  password
file. See your
                systems getpwent(3) man page for details.

     kerberos4  (All platforms)

                Authenticate  against the local Kerberos 4 realm.
(See the
                NOTES section for caveats about this driver.)

     kerberos5  (All platforms)

                Authenticate against the local Kerberos 5  realm.

     pam        (Linux, Solaris)

                Authenticate  using Pluggable Authentication Mod-
ules (PAM).

     rimap      (All platforms)

                Forward authentication requests to a remote  IMAP
server. This
                driver  connects  to a remote IMAP server, speci-
fied using the
                -O flag, and attempts to login (via an IMAP  `LO-
GIN' command)
                using the credentials supplied to the local serv-
er. If the re-
                mote authentication succeeds the local connection
is also con-
                sidered  to  be authenticated. The remote connec-
tion is closed
                as soon as the tagged response from  the  `LOGIN'
command is re-
                ceived from the remote server.

                The option parameter to the -O flag describes the
remote
                server to  forward  authentication  requests  to.
hostname can be
                a hostname (imap.example.com) or a dotted-quad IP
address
                (192.168.0.1). The latter is useful if the remote
server is
                multi-homed  and  has network interfaces that are
unreachable
                from the local IMAP server. The  remote  host  is
contacted on
                the  `imap'  service port. A non-default port can
be specified
                by appending a slash and the port name or  number
to the
                hostname argument.

                The -O flag and argument are mandatory when using
the rimap
                mechanism.

     shadow     (AIX, Irix, Linux, Solaris)

                Authenticate against the local  "shadow  password
file". The ex-
                act  mechanism  is  system  dependent.  saslauthd
currently under-
                stands the  getspnam()  and  getuserpw()  library
routines. Some
                systems honour the -T flag.

     sasldb     (All platforms)

                Authenticate   against  the  SASL  authentication
database.  Note
                that this is probabally not what you want  to  be
using, and is
                even disabled at compile-time by default.  If you
want to use
                sasldb with the SASL library, you  probably  want
to use the
                pwcheck_method of "auxprop" along with the sasldb
auxprop plu-
                gin instead.

     ldap       (All  platforms  that  support  OpenLDAP  2.0  or
higher)

                Authenticate  against  an  ldap server.  The ldap
configuration
                parameters are read  from  /usr/local/etc/saslau-
thd.conf.  The
                location  of this file can be changed with the -O
parameter.
                See the LDAP_SASLAUTHD  file  included  with  the
distribution for
                the list of available parameters.

     sia        (Digital UNIX)

                Authenticate  using the Digital UNIX Security In-
tegration Ar-
                chitecture (a.k.a.  "enhanced security").

NOTES

     The kerberos4 authentication  driver  consumes  considerable
resources. To
     perform  an  authentication it must obtain a ticket granting
ticket from
     the TGT server on every authentication request. The Kerberos
library rou-
     tines  that  obtain the TGT also create a local ticket file,
on the reason-
     able assumption that you will want to save the TGT  for  use
by other Ker-
     beros  applications.  These  ticket  files  are  unusable by

saslauthd, however

     there is no way not to create them. The overhead of creating
and removing
     these ticket files can cause serious performance degradation
on busy
     servers. (Kerberos was never intended to  be  used  in  this
manner, anyway.)

FILES

     /var/run/saslauthd/mux  The default communications socket.

     /usr/local/etc/saslauthd.conf
                             The  default  configuration file for
ldap support.

saslauthd(8)

NAME

SYNOPSIS

[-n threads]

DESCRIPTION

AUTHENTICATION MECHANISMS

NOTES

saslauthd, however

FILES

SEE ALSO