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Date:      Sat, 17 Feb 2001 09:54:34 -0600
From:      "Jacques A. Vidrine" <n@nectar.com>
To:        Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Summary of List of things to move from main tree to ports
Message-ID:  <20010217095434.A37535@spawn.nectar.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1010217102030.59690I-100000@fledge.watson.org>; from rwatson@FreeBSD.ORG on Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 10:22:56AM -0500
References:  <20010217085622.A37238@spawn.nectar.com> <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1010217102030.59690I-100000@fledge.watson.org>

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On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 10:22:56AM -0500, Robert Watson wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, Jacques A. Vidrine wrote:
> 
> > PAM does not and cannot provide the same functionality as the Kerberos
> > API, GSS-API or SASL.  PAM is targetted at interactive authentication --
> > give it a username and password, and return yes/no indicating
> > authentication success or failure [1].  Once authentication is done, PAM
> > is no longer involved (except for a possible clean-up when we log out --
> > though this is commonly not implemented). 
> 
> Generally speaking, I agree with your statements on the relationships
> between GSS-API, SASL, PAM, et al, except with regards to your summary of
> PAM.  There are actually additional things that PAM can be involved in,
> including the setup and tear-down of sessions, login authorization,
> management of local credentials, and accounting.  

I think we are in violent agreement -- I elided the details in order to
concentrate on the main point, which is a misconception that PAM could
somehow provide GSS-API-like functionality: data integrity and privacy.
This is outside the scope of PAM, just as much of what PAM does do is
outside the scope of GSS-API and Kerberos.  I'm repeating myself. :-)

Cheers,
-- 
Jacques Vidrine / n@nectar.com / jvidrine@verio.net / nectar@FreeBSD.org


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