Kerberos V5 System Administrator's Guide


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Copyright

Copyright © 1985-2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Export of software employing encryption from the United States of America may require a specific license from the United States Government. It is the responsibility of any person or organization contemplating export to obtain such a license before exporting.

WITHIN THAT CONSTRAINT, permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Furthermore if you modify this software you must label your software as modified software and not distribute it in such a fashion that it might be confused with the original MIT software. M.I.T. makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty.

Individual source code files are copyright MIT, Cygnus Support, Novell, OpenVision Technologies, Oracle, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, FundsXpress, and others.

Project Athena, Athena, Athena MUSE, Discuss, Hesiod, Kerberos, Moira, and Zephyr are trademarks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). No commercial use of these trademarks may be made without prior written permission of MIT.

“Commercial use” means use of a name in a product or other for-profit manner. It does NOT prevent a commercial firm from referring to the MIT trademarks in order to convey information (although in doing so, recognition of their trademark status should be given).

The following copyright and permission notice applies to the OpenVision Kerberos Administration system located in kadmin/create, kadmin/dbutil, kadmin/passwd, kadmin/server, lib/kadm5, and portions of lib/rpc:

Copyright, OpenVision Technologies, Inc., 1996, All Rights Reserved

WARNING: Retrieving the OpenVision Kerberos Administration system source code, as described below, indicates your acceptance of the following terms. If you do not agree to the following terms, do not retrieve the OpenVision Kerberos administration system.

You may freely use and distribute the Source Code and Object Code compiled from it, with or without modification, but this Source Code is provided to you “AS IS” EXCLUSIVE OF ANY WARRANTY, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY OTHER WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT WILL OPENVISION HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA OR COSTS OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THE SOURCE CODE, OR THE FAILURE OF THE SOURCE CODE TO PERFORM, OR FOR ANY OTHER REASON.

OpenVision retains all copyrights in the donated Source Code. OpenVision also retains copyright to derivative works of the Source Code, whether created by OpenVision or by a third party. The OpenVision copyright notice must be preserved if derivative works are made based on the donated Source Code.

OpenVision Technologies, Inc. has donated this Kerberos Administration system to MIT for inclusion in the standard Kerberos 5 distribution. This donation underscores our commitment to continuing Kerberos technology development and our gratitude for the valuable work which has been performed by MIT and the Kerberos community.

Portions contributed by Matt Crawford <crawdad@fnal.gov> were work performed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract DE-AC02-76CHO3000 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Portions of src/lib/crypto have the following copyright:

Copyright © 1998 by the FundsXpress, INC.

All rights reserved.

Export of this software from the United States of America may require a specific license from the United States Government. It is the responsibility of any person or organization contemplating export to obtain such a license before exporting.

WITHIN THAT CONSTRAINT, permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of FundsXpress. not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. FundsXpress makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The implementation of the Yarrow pseudo-random number generator in src/lib/crypto/yarrow has the following copyright:

Copyright 2000 by Zero-Knowledge Systems, Inc.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Zero-Knowledge Systems, Inc. not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Zero-Knowledge Systems, Inc. makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty.

ZERO-KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL ZERO-KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS, INC. BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

The implementation of the AES encryption algorithm in src/lib/crypto/aes has the following copyright:

Copyright © 2001, Dr Brian Gladman <brg@gladman.uk.net>, Worcester, UK.
All rights reserved.

LICENSE TERMS

The free distribution and use of this software in both source and binary form is allowed (with or without changes) provided that:

  1. distributions of this source code include the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer;
  2. distributions in binary form include the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other associated materials;
  3. the copyright holder's name is not used to endorse products built using this software without specific written permission.

DISCLAIMER

This software is provided 'as is' with no explcit or implied warranties in respect of any properties, including, but not limited to, correctness and fitness for purpose.

Portions contributed by Red Hat, including the pre-authentication plug-in framework, contain the following copyright:

Copyright © 2006 Red Hat, Inc.
Portions copyright © 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All Rights Reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

The implementations of GSSAPI mechglue in GSSAPI-SPNEGO in src/lib/gssapi, including the following files:

     lib/gssapi/generic/gssapi_err_generic.et
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_accept_sec_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_acquire_cred.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_canon_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_compare_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_context_time.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_delete_sec_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_dsp_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_dsp_status.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_dup_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_exp_sec_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_export_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_glue.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_imp_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_imp_sec_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_init_sec_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_initialize.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_inquire_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_inquire_cred.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_inquire_names.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_process_context.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_rel_buffer.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_rel_cred.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_rel_name.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_rel_oid_set.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_seal.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_sign.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_store_cred.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_unseal.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_userok.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_utils.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/g_verify.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/gssd_pname_to_uid.c
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/mglueP.h
     lib/gssapi/mechglue/oid_ops.c
     lib/gssapi/spnego/gssapiP_spnego.h
     lib/gssapi/spnego/spnego_mech.c

are subject to the following license:

Copyright © 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Kerberos V5 includes documentation and software developed at the University of California at Berkeley, which includes this copyright notice:

Copyright © 1983 Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Portions contributed by Novell, Inc., including the LDAP database backend, are subject to the following license:

Copyright (c) 2004-2005, Novell, Inc. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Portions funded by Sandia National Laboratory and developed by the University of Michigan's Center for Information Technology Integration, including the PKINIT implementation, are subject to the following license:

COPYRIGHT © 2006-2007
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Permission is granted to use, copy, create derivative works and redistribute this software and such derivative works for any purpose, so long as the name of The University of Michigan is not used in any advertising or publicity pertaining to the use of distribution of this software without specific, written prior authorization. If the above copyright notice or any other identification of the University of Michigan is included in any copy of any portion of this software, then the disclaimer below must also be included.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT REPRESENTATION FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AS TO ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE, AND WITHOUT WARRANTY BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF IT HAS BEEN OR IS HEREAFTER ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

The pkcs11.h file included in the PKINIT code has the following license:

Copyright 2006 g10 Code GmbH Copyright 2006 Andreas Jellinghaus

This file is free software; as a special exception the author gives unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it, with or without modifications, as long as this notice is preserved.

This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notices and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.


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1 Introduction


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1.1 Why Should I use Kerberos?

Since Kerberos negotiates authenticated, and optionally encrypted, communications between two points anywhere on the internet, it provides a layer of security that is not dependent on which side of a firewall either client is on. Since studies have shown that half of the computer security breaches in industry happen from inside firewalls, Kerberos V5 from MIT will play a vital role in the security of your network.


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1.2 Documentation for Kerberos V5

This document is one piece of the document set for Kerberos V5. The documents, and their intended audiences, are:


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1.3 Overview of This Guide

The next chapter describes how Kerberos works.

Chapter three describes administration of the principals in the Kerberos database.

Chapter four describes how you can use DNS in configuring your Kerberos realm.

Chapter five describes administrative programs for manipulating the Kerberos database as a whole.

Chapter six describes OpenLDAP Configuration steps.

Chapter seven describes issues to consider when adding an application server to the database.

Chapter eight describes our problem reporting system.

The appendices include the list of Kerberos error messages, and a complete list of the time zones understood by kadmin.


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2 How Kerberos Works

This section provides a simplified description of a general user's interaction with the Kerberos system. This interaction happens transparently—users don't need to know and probably don't care about what's going on—but Kerberos administrators might find a schematic description of the process useful. This description glosses over a lot of details; for more information, see Kerberos: An Authentication Service for Open Network Systems, a paper presented at Winter USENIX 1988, in Dallas, Texas. This paper can be retreived by FTP from athena-dist.mit.edu, in the location: /pub/ATHENA/kerberos/doc/usenix.PS.


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2.1 Network Services and Their Client Programs

In an environment that provides network services, you use client programs to request services from server programs that are somewhere on the network. Suppose you have logged in to a workstation and you want to rlogin to a typical UNIX host. You use the local rlogin client program to contact the remote machine's rlogind daemon.


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2.2 Kerberos Tickets

Under Kerberos, the klogind daemon allows you to login to a remote machine if you can provide klogind a Kerberos ticket which proves your identity. In addition to the ticket, you must also have possession of the corresponding ticket session key. The combination of a ticket and the ticket's session key is known as a credential.

Typically, a client program automatically obtains credentials identifying the person using the client program. The credentials are obtained from a Kerberos server that resides somewhere on the network. A Kerberos server maintains a database of user, server, and password information.


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2.3 The Kerberos Database

Kerberos will give you credentials only if you have an entry in the Kerberos server's Kerberos database. Your database entry includes your Kerberos principal (an identifying string, which is often just your username), and your Kerberos password. Every Kerberos user must have an entry in this database.


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2.4 Kerberos Realms

Each administrative domain will have its own Kerberos database, which contains information about the users and services for that particular site or administrative domain. This administrative domain is the Kerberos realm.

Each Kerberos realm will have at least one Kerberos server, where the master Kerberos database for that site or administrative domain is stored. A Kerberos realm may also have one or more slave servers, which have read-only copies of the Kerberos database that are periodically propagated from the master server. For more details on how this is done, see the “Set Up the Slave KDCs for Database Propagation” and “Propagate the Database to Each Slave KDC” sections of the Kerberos V5 Installation Guide.


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2.5 The Ticket-Granting Ticket

The kinit command prompts for your password. If you enter it successfully, you will obtain a ticket-granting ticket and a ticket session key which gives you the right to use the ticket. This combination of the ticket and its associated key is known as your credentials. As illustrated below, client programs use your ticket-granting ticket credentials in order to obtain client-specific credentials as needed.

Your credentials are stored in a credentials cache, which is often just a file in /tmp. The credentials cache is also called the ticket file, especially in Kerberos V4 documentation. Note, however, that a credentials cache does not have to be stored in a file.


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2.6 Network Services and the Master Database

The master database also contains entries for all network services that require Kerberos authentication. Suppose that your site has a machine, laughter.mit.edu, that requires Kerberos authentication from anyone who wants to rlogin to it. The host's Kerberos realm is ATHENA.MIT.EDU.

This service must be registered in the Kerberos database, using the proper service name, which in this case is the principal:

     host/laughter.mit.edu@ATHENA.MIT.EDU

The / character separates the Kerberos primary (in this case, host) from the instance (in this case, laughter.mit.edu); the @ character separates the realm name (in this case, ATHENA.MIT.EDU) from the rest of the principal. The primary, host, denotes the name or type of the service that is being offered: generic host-level access to the machine. The instance, laughter.mit.edu, names the specific machine that is offering this service. There will generally be many different machines, each offering one particular type of service, and the instance serves to give each one of these servers a different Kerberos principal.


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2.6.1 The Keytab File

For each service, there must also be a service key known only by Kerberos and the service. On the Kerberos server, the service key is stored in the Kerberos database.

On the server host, these service keys are stored in key tables, which are files known as keytabs.1 For example, the service keys used by services that run as root are usually stored in the keytab file /etc/krb5.keytab. N.B.: This service key is the equivalent of the service's password, and must be kept secure. Data which is meant to be read only by the service is encrypted using this key.


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2.7 The User/Kerberos Interaction

Suppose that you walk up to a host intending to login to it, and then rlogin to the machine laughter. Here's what happens:

  1. You login to the workstation and use the kinit command to get a ticket-granting ticket. This command prompts you for your Kerberos password. (On systems running the Kerberos V5 login program, this may be done as part of the login process, not requiring the user to run a separate program.)
    1. The kinit command sends your request to the Kerberos master server machine. The server software looks for your principal name's entry in the Kerberos database.
    2. If this entry exists, the Kerberos server creates and returns a ticket-granting ticket and the key which allows you to use it, encrypted by your password. If kinit can decrypt the Kerberos reply using the password you provide, it stores this ticket in a credentials cache on your local machine for later use. The name of the credentials cache can be specified in the KRB5CCNAME environment variable. If this variable is not set, the name of the file will be /tmp/krb5cc_<uid>, where <uid> is your UNIX user-id, represented in decimal format.
  2. Now you use the rlogin client to access the machine laughter.
              host% rlogin laughter
         
    1. The rlogin client checks your ticket file to see if you have a ticket for the host service for laughter. You don't, so rlogin uses the credential cache's ticket-granting ticket to make a request to the master server's ticket-granting service.
    2. This ticket-granting service receives the request for a ticket for host/laughter.mit.edu, and looks in the master database for an entry for host/laughter.mit.edu. If the entry exists, the ticket-granting service issues you a ticket for that service. That ticket is also cached in your credentials cache.
    3. The rlogin client now sends that ticket to the laughter klogind service program. The service program checks the ticket by using its own service key. If the ticket is valid, it now knows your identity. If you are allowed to login to laughter (because your username matches one in /etc/passwd, or your Kerberos principal is in the appropriate .k5login file), klogind will let you login.


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2.8 Definitions

Following are definitions of some of the Kerberos terminology.

client
an entity that can obtain a ticket. This entity is usually either a user or a host.
host
a computer that can be accessed over a network.
Kerberos
in Greek mythology, the three-headed dog that guards the entrance to the underworld. In the computing world, Kerberos is a network security package that was developed at MIT.
KDC
Key Distribution Center. A machine that issues Kerberos tickets.
keytab
a key table file containing one or more keys. A host or service uses a keytab file in much the same way as a user uses his/her password.
principal
a string that names a specific entity to which a set of credentials may be assigned. It can have an arbitrary number of components, but generally has three:
primary
the first part of a Kerberos principal. In the case of a user, it is the username. In the case of a service, it is the name of the service.
instance
the second part of a Kerberos principal. It gives information that qualifies the primary. The instance may be null. In the case of a user, the instance is often used to describe the intended use of the corresponding credentials. In the case of a host, the instance is the fully qualified hostname.
realm
the logical network served by a single Kerberos database and a set of Key Distribution Centers. By convention, realm names are generally all uppercase letters, to differentiate the realm from the internet domain.

The typical format of a typical Kerberos principal is primary/instance@REALM.

service
any program or computer you access over a network. Examples of services include “host” (a host, e.g., when you use telnet and rsh), “ftp” (FTP), “krbtgt” (authentication; cf. ticket-granting ticket), and “pop” (email).
ticket
a temporary set of electronic credentials that verify the identity of a client for a particular service.
TGT
Ticket-Granting Ticket. A special Kerberos ticket that permits the client to obtain additional Kerberos tickets within the same Kerberos realm.


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3 Configuration Files


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3.1 Supported Encryption Types

Any tag in the configuration files which requires a list of encryption types can be set to some combination of the following strings.

des-cbc-crc
DES cbc mode with CRC-32
des-cbc-md4
DES cbc mode with RSA-MD4
des-cbc-md5
DES cbc mode with RSA-MD5
des3-cbc-sha1
des3-hmac-sha1
des3-cbc-sha1-kd
triple DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1
des-hmac-sha1
DES with HMAC/sha1
aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96
aes256-cts
AES-256 CTS mode with 96-bit SHA-1 HMAC
aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96
aes128-cts
AES-128 CTS mode with 96-bit SHA-1 HMAC
arcfour-hmac
rc4-hmac
arcfour-hmac-md5
RC4 with HMAC/MD5
arcfour-hmac-exp
rc4-hmac-exp
arcfour-hmac-md5-exp
exportable RC4 with HMAC/MD5

While aes128-cts and aes256-cts are supported for all Kerberos operations, they are not supported by older versions of our GSSAPI implementation (krb5-1.3.1 and earlier).

By default, AES is enabled in this release. Sites wishing to use AES encryption types on their KDCs need to be careful not to give GSSAPI services AES keys if the servers have not been updated. If older GSSAPI services are given AES keys, then services may fail when clients supporting AES for GSSAPI are used. Sites may wish to use AES for user keys and for the ticket granting ticket key, although doing so requires specifying what encryption types are used as each principal is created.

If all GSSAPI-based services have been updated before or with the KDC, this is not an issue.


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3.2 Salts

Your Kerberos key is derived from your password. To ensure that people who happen to pick the same password do not have the same key, Kerberos 5 incorporates more information into the key using something called a salt. The supported values for salts are as follows.

normal
default for Kerberos Version 5
v4
the only type used by Kerberos Version 4, no salt
norealm
same as the default, without using realm information
onlyrealm
uses only realm information as the salt
afs3
AFS version 3, only used for compatibility with Kerberos 4 in AFS
special
only used in very special cases; not fully supported


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3.3 krb5.conf

The krb5.conf file contains Kerberos configuration information, including the locations of KDCs and admin servers for the Kerberos realms of interest, defaults for the current realm and for Kerberos applications, and mappings of hostnames onto Kerberos realms. Normally, you should install your krb5.conf file in the directory /etc. You can override the default location by setting the environment variable KRB5_CONFIG.

The krb5.conf file is set up in the style of a Windows INI file. Sections are headed by the section name, in square brackets. Each section may contain zero or more relations, of the form:

     foo = bar

or

     fubar = {
             foo = bar
             baz = quux
     }

Placing a `*' at the end of a line indicates that this is the final value for the tag. This means that neither the remainder of this configuration file nor any other configuration file will be checked for any other values for this tag.

For example, if you have the following lines:

     foo = bar*
     foo = baz

then the second value of foo (baz) would never be read.

The krb5.conf file may contain any or all of the following sections:

libdefaults
Contains default values used by the Kerberos V5 library.
login
Contains default values used by the Kerberos V5 login program.
appdefaults
Contains default values that can be used by Kerberos V5 applications.
realms
Contains subsections keyed by Kerberos realm names. Each subsection describes realm-specific information, including where to find the Kerberos servers for that realm.
domain_realm
Contains relations which map domain names and subdomains onto Kerberos realm names. This is used by programs to determine what realm a host should be in, given its fully qualified domain name.
logging
Contains relations which determine how Kerberos programs are to perform logging.
capaths
Contains the authentication paths used with direct (nonhierarchical) cross-realm authentication. Entries in this section are used by the client to determine the intermediate realms which may be used in cross-realm authentication. It is also used by the end-service when checking the transited field for trusted intermediate realms.


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3.3.1 [libdefaults]

The libdefaults section may contain any of the following relations:

default_keytab_name
This relation specifies the default keytab name to be used by application servers such as telnetd and rlogind. The default is /etc/krb5.keytab.
default_realm
Identifies the default Kerberos realm for the client. Set its value to your Kerberos realm. If this is not specified and the TXT record lookup is enabled (see Using DNS), then that information will be used to determine the default realm. If this tag is not set in this configuration file and there is no DNS information found, then an error will be returned.
default_tgs_enctypes
Identifies the supported list of session key encryption types that should be returned by the KDC. The list may be delimited with commas or whitespace. Kerberos supports many different encryption types, and support for more is planned in the future. (see Supported Encryption Types for a list of the accepted values for this tag). The default value is aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 des3-cbc-sha1 arcfour-hmac-md5 des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5 des-cbc-md4.
default_tkt_enctypes
Identifies the supported list of session key encryption types that should be requested by the client. The format is the same as for default_tgs_enctypes. The default value for this tag is aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 des3-cbc-sha1 arcfour-hmac-md5 des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5 des-cbc-md4.
permitted_enctypes
Identifies all encryption types that are permitted for use in session key encryption. The default value for this tag is aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 des3-cbc-sha1 arcfour-hmac-md5 des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5 des-cbc-md4.
clockskew
Sets the maximum allowable amount of clockskew in seconds that the library will tolerate before assuming that a Kerberos message is invalid. The default value is 300 seconds, or five minutes.
kdc_timesync
If this is set to 1 (for true), then client machines will compute the difference between their time and the time returned by the KDC in the timestamps in the tickets and use this value to correct for an inaccurate system clock. This corrective factor is only used by the Kerberos library. The default is 1.
kdc_req_checksum_type
ap_req_checksum_type
safe_checksum_type
An integer which specifies the type of checksum to use. Used for compatability with DCE security servers which do not support the default RSA MD5 used by this version of Kerberos. The possible values and their meanings are as follows.
1
CRC32
2
RSA MD4
3
RSA MD4 DES
4
DES CBC
7
RSA MD5
8
RSA MD5 DES
9
NIST SHA
12
HMAC SHA1 DES3
-138
Microsoft MD5 HMAC checksum type
ccache_type
Use this parameter on systems which are DCE clients, to specify the type of cache to be created by kinit, or when forwarded tickets are received. DCE and Kerberos can share the cache, but some versions of DCE do not support the default cache as created by this version of Kerberos. Use a value of 1 on DCE 1.0.3a systems, and a value of 2 on DCE 1.1 systems. The default value is 4.
krb4_srvtab
Specifies the location of the Kerberos V4 srvtab file. Default is /etc/srvtab.
krb4_config
Specifies the location of hte Kerberos V4 configuration file. Default is /etc/krb.conf.
krb4_realms
Specifies the location of the Kerberos V4 domain/realm translation file. Default is /etc/krb.realms.
dns_lookup_kdc
Indicate whether DNS SRV records should be used to locate the KDCs and other servers for a realm, if they are not listed in the information for the realm. (Note that the admin_server entry must be in the file, because the DNS implementation for it is incomplete.)

Enabling this option does open up a type of denial-of-service attack, if someone spoofs the DNS records and redirects you to another server. However, it's no worse than a denial of service, because that fake KDC will be unable to decode anything you send it (besides the initial ticket request, which has no encrypted data), and anything the fake KDC sends will not be trusted without verification using some secret that it won't know.

If this option is not specified but dns_fallback is, that value will be used instead. If neither option is specified, the behavior depends on configure-time options; if none were given, the default is to enable this option. If the DNS support is not compiled in, this entry has no effect.

dns_lookup_realm
Indicate whether DNS TXT records should be used to determine the Kerberos realm of a host.

Enabling this option may permit a redirection attack, where spoofed DNS replies persuade a client to authenticate to the wrong realm, when talking to the wrong host (either by spoofing yet more DNS records or by intercepting the net traffic). Depending on how the client software manages hostnames, however, it could already be vulnerable to such attacks. We are looking at possible ways to minimize or eliminate this exposure. For now, we encourage more adventurous sites to try using Secure DNS.

If this option is not specified but dns_fallback is, that value will be used instead. If neither option is specified, the behavior depends on configure-time options; if none were given, the default is to disable this option. If the DNS support is not compiled in, this entry has no effect.

dns_fallback
General flag controlling the use of DNS for Kerberos information. If both of the preceding options are specified, this option has no effect.
extra_addresses
This allows a computer to use multiple local addresses, in order to allow Kerberos to work in a network that uses NATs. The addresses should be in a comma-separated list.
udp_preference_limit
When sending a message to the KDC, the library will try using TCP before UDP if the size of the message is above udp_preference_list. If the message is smaller than udp_preference_list, then UDP will be tried before TCP. Regardless of the size, both protocols will be tried if the first attempt fails.
verify_ap_req_nofail
If this flag is set, then an attempt to get initial credentials will fail if the client machine does not have a keytab. The default for the flag is not set.
renew_lifetime
The value of this tag is the default renewable lifetime for initial tickets. The default value for the tag is 0.
noaddresses
Setting this flag causes the initial Kerberos ticket to be addressless. The default for the flag is set.
forwardable
If this flag is set, initial tickets by default will be forwardable. The default value for this flag is not set.
proxiable
If this flag is set, initial tickets by default will be proxiable. The default value for this flag is not set.


Next: , Previous: libdefaults, Up: krb5.conf

3.3.2 [appdefaults]

Each tag in the [appdefaults] section names a Kerberos V5 application or an option that is used by some Kerberos V5 application[s]. The value of the tag defines the default behaviors for that application.

For example:

     [appdefaults]
         telnet = {
             ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
                  option1 = false
             }
         }
         telnet = {
             option1 = true
             option2 = true
         }
         ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
             option2 = false
         }
         option2 = true

The above four ways of specifying the value of an option are shown in order of decreasing precedence. In this example, if telnet is running in the realm EXAMPLE.COM, it should, by default, have option1 and option2 set to true. However, a telnet program in the realm ATHENA.MIT.EDU should have option1 set to false and option2 set to true. Any other programs in ATHENA.MIT.EDU should have option2 set to false by default. Any programs running in other realms should have option2 set to true.

The list of specifiable options for each application may be found in that application's man pages. The application defaults specified here are overridden by those specified in the [realms] section.

A special application name (afs_krb5) is used by the krb524 service to know whether new format AFS tokens based on Kerberos 5 can be used rather than the older format which used a converted Kerberos 4 ticket. The new format allows for cross-realm authentication without introducing a security hole. It is used by default. Older AFS servers (before OpenAFS 1.2.8) will not support the new format. If servers in your cell do not support the new format, you will need to add an afs_krb5 relation to the appdefaults section. The following config file shows how to disable new format AFS tickets for the afs.example.com cell in the EXAMPLE.COM realm.

     [appdefaults]
         afs_krb5 = {
             EXAMPLE.COM = {
                 afs/afs.example.com = false
             }
         }


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3.3.3 [login]

Each tag in the [login] section of the file is an option for login.krb5. This section may contain any of the following relations:

krb5_get_tickets
Indicate whether or not to use a user's password to get V5 tickets. The default value is true.
krb4_get_tickets
Indicate whether or not to user a user's password to get V4 tickets. The default value is false.
krb4_convert
Indicate whether or not to use the Kerberos conversion daemon to get V4 tickets. The default value is false. If this is set to false and krb4_get_tickets is true, then login will get the V5 tickets directly using the Kerberos V4 protocol directly. This does not currently work with non-MIT-V4 salt types (such as the AFS3 salt type). Note that if this is set to true and krb524d is not running, login will hang for approximately a minute under Solaris, due to a Solaris socket emulation bug.
krb_run_aklog
Indicate whether or not to run aklog. The default value is false.
aklog_path
Indicate where to find aklog. The default value is $(prefix)/bin/aklog.
accept_passwd
A true value will cause login not to accept plaintext passwords. The default value is false. This is not yet implemented.


Next: , Previous: login, Up: krb5.conf

3.3.4 [realms]

Each tag in the [realms] section of the file is the name of a Kerberos realm. The value of the tag is a subsection with relations that define the properties of that particular realm. For each realm, the following tags may be specified in the realm's subsection:

kdc
The name of a host running a KDC for that realm. An optional port number (separated from the hostname by a colon) may be included. For your computer to be able to communicate with the KDC for each realm, this tag must be given a value in each realm subsection in the configuration file, or there must be DNS SRV records specifying the KDCs (see Using DNS).
master_kdc
Identifies the master KDC(s). Currently, this tag is used in only one case: If an attempt to get credentials fails because of an invalid password, the client software will attempt to contact the master KDC, in case the user's password has just been changed, and the updated database has not been propagated to the slave servers yet. (We don't currently check whether the KDC from which the initial response came is on the master KDC list. That may be fixed in the future.)
database_module
This relation indicates the name of the configuration section under [dbmodules] for database specific parameters used by the loadable database library.
admin_server
Identifies the host where the administration server is running. Typically, this is the master Kerberos server. This tag must be given a value in order to communicate with the kadmin server for the realm.
default_domain
This tag is used for Kerberos 4 compatibility. Kerberos 4 does not require the entire hostname of a server to be in its principal like Kerberos 5 does. This tag provides the domain name needed to produce a full hostname when translating V4 principal names into V5 principal names. All servers in this realm are assumed to be in the domain given as the value of this tag
v4_instance_convert
This subsection allows the administrator to configure exceptions to the default_domain mapping rule. It contains V4 instances (the tag name) which should be translated to some specific hostname (the tag value) as the second component in a Kerberos V5 principal name.
v4_realm
This relation is used by the krb524 library routines when converting a V5 principal name to a V4 principal name. It is used when the V4 realm name and the V5 realm name are not the same, but still share the same principal names and passwords. The tag value is the Kerberos V4 realm name.
auth_to_local_names
This subsection allows you to set explicit mappings from principal names to local user names. The tag is the mapping name, and the value is the corresponding local user name.
auth_to_local
This tag allows you to set a general rule for mapping principal names to local user names. It will be used if there is not an explicit mapping for the principal name that is being translated. The possible values are:
DB:filename
The principal will be looked up in the database filename. Support for this is not currently compiled in by default.
RULE:exp
The local name will be formulated from exp.

The format for exp is [n:$d..string](regexp)s/pattern/replacement/g. The integer n indicates how many components the target principal should have. If this matches, then a string will be formed by putting together the components of the principal in the order indicated by each integer d, and the arbitrary string string (i.e. if the principal was johndoe/admin then [2:$2$1foo] would result in the string "adminjohndoefoo". If this string matches regexp, then the s//[g] substitution command will be run over the string. The optional g will cause the substitution to be global over the string, instead of replacing only the first match in the string.

DEFAULT
The principal name will be used as the local user name. If the principal has more than one component or is not in the default realm, this rule is not applicable and the conversion will fail.

For example:

          [realms]
              ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
                  auth_to_local = {
                      RULE:[2:$1](johndoe)s/^.*$/guest/
                      RULE:[2:$1;$2](^.*;admin$)s/;admin$//
                      RULE:[2:$2](^.*;root)s/^.*$/root/
                      DEFAULT
                      }
                  }
     

would result in any principal without root or admin as the second component to be translated with the default rule. A principal with a second component of admin will become its first component. root will be used as the local name for any principal with a second component of root. The exception to these two rules are any principals johndoe/*, which will always get the local name guest.


Next: , Previous: realms (krb5.conf), Up: krb5.conf

3.3.5 [domain_realm]

The [domain_realm] section provides a translation from a domain name or hostname to a Kerberos realm name. The tag name can be a host name, or a domain name, where domain names are indicated by a prefix of a period (.). The value of the relation is the Kerberos realm name for that particular host or domain. Host names and domain names should be in lower case.

If no translation entry applies, the host's realm is considered to be the hostname's domain portion converted to upper case. For example, the following [domain_realm] section:

     [domain_realm]
         .mit.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
         mit.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
         crash.mit.edu = TEST.ATHENA.MIT.EDU
         example.com = EXAMPLE.COM

maps crash.mit.edu into the TEST.ATHENA.MIT.EDU realm. All other hosts in the mit.edu domain will map by default to the ATHENA.MIT.EDU realm, and all hosts in the example.com domain will map by default into the EXAMPLE.COM realm. Note the entries for the hosts mit.edu and example.com. Without these entries, these hosts would be mapped into the Kerberos realms EDU and ORG, respectively.


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3.3.6 [logging]

The [logging] section indicates how a particular entity is to perform its logging. The relations in this section assign one or more values to the entity name. Currently, the following entities are used:

kdc
These entries specify how the KDC is to perform its logging.
admin_server
These entries specify how the administrative server is to perform its logging.
default
These entries specify how to perform logging in the absence of explicit specifications otherwise.

Values are of the following forms:

FILE=<filename>
FILE:<filename>
This value causes the entity's logging messages to go to the specified file. If the = form is used, the file is overwritten. If the : form is used, the file is appended to.
STDERR
This value causes the entity's logging messages to go to its standard error stream.
CONSOLE
This value causes the entity's logging messages to go to the console, if the system supports it.
DEVICE=<devicename>
This causes the entity's logging messages to go to the specified device.
SYSLOG[:<severity>[:<facility>]]
This causes the entity's logging messages to go to the system log.

The severity argument specifies the default severity of system log messages. This may be any of the following severities supported by the syslog(3) call, minus the LOG_ prefix: LOG_EMERG, LOG_ALERT, LOG_CRIT, LOG_ERR, LOG_WARNING, LOG_NOTICE, LOG_INFO, and LOG_DEBUG. For example, a value of CRIT would specify LOG_CRIT severity.

The facility argument specifies the facility under which the messages are logged. This may be any of the following facilities supported by the syslog(3) call minus the LOG_ prefix: LOG_KERN, LOG_USER, LOG_MAIL, LOG_DAEMON, LOG_AUTH, LOG_LPR, LOG_NEWS, LOG_UUCP, LOG_CRON, and LOG_LOCAL0 through LOG_LOCAL7.

If no severity is specified, the default is ERR. If no facility is specified, the default is AUTH.

In the following example, the logging messages from the KDC will go to the console and to the system log under the facility LOG_DAEMON with default severity of LOG_INFO; and the logging messages from the administrative server will be appended to the file /var/adm/kadmin.log and sent to the device /dev/tty04.

     [logging]
         kdc = CONSOLE
         kdc = SYSLOG:INFO:DAEMON
         admin_server = FILE:/var/adm/kadmin.log
         admin_server = DEVICE=/dev/tty04


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3.3.7 [capaths]

In order to perform direct (non-hierarchical) cross-realm authentication, a database is needed to construct the authentication paths between the realms. This section defines that database.

A client will use this section to find the authentication path between its realm and the realm of the server. The server will use this section to verify the authentication path used by the client, by checking the transited field of the received ticket.

There is a tag for each participating realm, and each tag has subtags for each of the realms. The value of the subtags is an intermediate realm which may participate in the cross-realm authentication. The subtags may be repeated if there is more then one intermediate realm. A value of "." means that the two realms share keys directly, and no intermediate realms should be allowed to participate.

There are n**2 possible entries in this table, but only those entries which will be needed on the client or the server need to be present. The client needs a tag for its local realm, with subtags for all the realms of servers it will need to authenticate with. A server needs a tag for each realm of the clients it will serve.

For example, ANL.GOV, PNL.GOV, and NERSC.GOV all wish to use the ES.NET realm as an intermediate realm. ANL has a sub realm of TEST.ANL.GOV which will authenticate with NERSC.GOV but not PNL.GOV. The [capaths] section for ANL.GOV systems would look like this:

     [capaths]
         ANL.GOV = {
             TEST.ANL.GOV = .
             PNL.GOV = ES.NET
             NERSC.GOV = ES.NET
             ES.NET = .
         }
         TEST.ANL.GOV = {
             ANL.GOV = .
         }
         PNL.GOV = {
             ANL.GOV = ES.NET
         }
         NERSC.GOV = {
             ANL.GOV = ES.NET
         }
         ES.NET = {
             ANL.GOV = .
         }

The [capaths] section of the configuration file used on NERSC.GOV systems would look like this:

     [capaths]
         NERSC.GOV = {
             ANL.GOV = ES.NET
             TEST.ANL.GOV = ES.NET
             TEST.ANL.GOV = ANL.GOV
             PNL.GOV = ES.NET
             ES.NET = .
         }
         ANL.GOV = {
             NERSC.GOV = ES.NET
         }
         PNL.GOV = {
             NERSC.GOV = ES.NET
         }
         ES.NET = {
             NERSC.GOV = .
         }
         TEST.ANL.GOV = {
             NERSC.GOV = ANL.GOV
             NERSC.GOV = ES.NET
         }

In the above examples, the ordering is not important, except when the same subtag name is used more then once. The client will use this to determine the path. (It is not important to the server, since the transited field is not sorted.)

This feature is not currently supported by DCE. DCE security servers can be used with Kerberized clients and servers, but versions prior to DCE 1.1 did not fill in the transited field, and should be used with caution.


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3.3.8 [dbdefaults]

The [dbdefaults] section provides default values for the database specific parameters. It can also specify the configuration section under [dbmodules] section for database specific parameters used by the database library.(see dbmodules).

The following tags are used in this section:

database_module
This relation indicates the name of the configuration section under the [dbmodules] for database specific parameters used by the loadable database library.
ldap_kerberos_container_dn
This LDAP specific tag indicates the DN of the container object where the realm objects will be located. This value is used if the container object is not mentioned in the configuration section under [dbmodules].
ldap_kdc_dn
This LDAP specific tag indicates the default bind DN for the KDC server. The KDC server does a login to the directory as this object. This object should have the rights to read the Kerberos data in the LDAP database. This value is used if the bind DN for the KDC is not mentioned in the configuration section under [dbmodules].
ldap_kadmind_dn
This LDAP specific tag indicates the default bind DN for the Administration server. The administration server does a login to the directory as this object. This object should have the rights to read and write the Kerberos data in the LDAP database. This value is used if the bind DN for the Administration server is not mentioned in the configuration section under [dbmodules].
ldap_service_password_file
This LDAP specific tag indicates the file containing the stashed passwords for the objects used by the Kerberos servers to bind to the LDAP server. This file must be kept secure. This value is used if no service password file is mentioned in the configuration section under [dbmodules].
ldap_server
This LDAP specific tag indicates the list of LDAP servers that the Kerberos servers can connect to. The list of LDAP servers is whitespace-separated. The LDAP server is specified by a LDAP URI. This value is used if no LDAP servers are mentioned in the configuration section under [dbmodules]. It is recommended to use the ldapi:// or ldaps:// interface and not to use ldap:// interface.
ldap_conns_per_server
This LDAP specific tag indicates the number of connections to be maintained per LDAP server. This value is used if the number of connections per LDAP server are not mentioned in the configuration section under [dbmodules]. The default value is 5.


Next: , Previous: dbdefaults, Up: krb5.conf

3.3.9 [dbmodules]

Contains database specific parameters used by the database library. Each tag in the [dbmodules] section of the file names a configuration section for database specific parameters that can be referred to by a realm. The value of the tag is a subsection where the relations in that subsection define the database specific parameters.

For each section, the following tags may be specified in the subsection:

db_library
This tag indicates the name of the loadable database library. The value should be db2 for DB2 database and kldap for LDAP database.
ldap_kerberos_container_dn
This LDAP specific tag indicates the DN of the container object where the realm objects will be located.
ldap_kdc_dn
This LDAP specific tag indicates the default bind DN for the KDC server. The KDC server does a login to the directory as this object. This object should have the rights to read the Kerberos data in the LDAP database.
ldap_kadmind_dn
This LDAP specific tag indicates the default bind DN for the Administration server. The administration server does a login to the directory as this object. This object should have the rights to read and write the Kerberos data in the LDAP database.
ldap_service_password_file
This LDAP specific tag indicates the file containing the stashed passwords for the objects used by the Kerberos servers to bind to the LDAP server. This file must be kept secure.
ldap_server
This LDAP specific tag indicates the list of LDAP servers that the Kerberos servers can connect to. The list of LDAP servers is whitespace-separated. The LDAP server is specified by a LDAP URI. It is recommended to use ldapi:// or ldaps:// interface to connect to the LDAP server.
ldap_conns_per_server
This LDAP specific tags indicates the number of connections to be maintained per LDAP server.


Next: , Previous: dbmodules, Up: krb5.conf

3.3.10 pkinit options

The following are pkinit-specific options. Note that these values may be specified in [libdefaults] as global defaults, or within a realm-specific subsection of [libdefaults], or may be specified as realm-specific values in the [realms] section. Also note that a realm-specific value over-rides, does not add to, a generic [libdefaults] specification. The search order is:

  1. realm-specific subsection of [libdefaults]
              [libdefaults]
                  EXAMPLE.COM = {
                      pkinit_anchors = FILE:/usr/local/example.com.crt
                  }
         
  2. realm-specific value in the [realms] section,
              [realms]
                  OTHERREALM.ORG = {
                      pkinit_anchors = FILE:/usr/local/otherrealm.org.crt
                  }
         
  3. generic value in the [libdefaults] section.
              [libdefaults]
                  pkinit_anchors = DIR:/usr/local/generic_trusted_cas/
         


Next: , Previous: pkinit client options, Up: pkinit client options
3.3.10.1 Specifying pkinit identity information

The syntax for specifying Public Key identity, trust, and revocation information for pkinit is as follows:

FILE:file-name[,key-file-name]
This option has context-specific behavior.
pkinit_identity
pkinit_identities
file-name specifies the name of a PEM-format file containing the user's certificate. If key-file-name is not specified, the user's private key is expected to be in file-name as well. Otherwise, key-file-name is the name of the file containing the private key.
pkinit_anchors
pkinit_pool
file-name is assumed to be the name of an OpenSSL-style ca-bundle file.

DIR:directory-name
This option has context-specific behavior.
pkinit_identity
pkinit_identities
directory-name specifies a directory with files named *.crt and *.key, where the first part of the file name is the same for matching pairs of certificate and private key files. When a file with a name ending with .crt is found, a matching file ending with .key is assumed to contain the private key. If no such file is found, then the certificate in the .crt is not used.
pkinit_anchors
pkinit_pool
directory-name is assumed to be an OpenSSL-style hashed CA directory where each CA cert is stored in a file named hash-of-ca-cert.#. This infrastructure is encouraged, but all files in the directory will be examined and if they contain certificates (in PEM format), they will be used.
pkinit_revoke
directory-name is assumed to be an OpenSSL-style hashed CA directory where each revocation list is stored in a file named hash-of-ca-cert.r#. This infrastructure is encouraged, but all files in the directory will be examined and if they contain a revocation list (in PEM format), they will be used.

PKCS12:pkcs12-file-name
pkcs12-file-name is the name of a PKCS #12 format file, containing the user's certificate and private key.
PKCS11:[module_name=]module-name[:slotid=slot-id][:token=token-label][:certid=cert-id][:certlabel=cert-label]
All keyword/values are optional. module-name specifies the location of a library implementing PKCS #11. If a value is encountered with not keyword, it is assumed to be the module-name. If no module-name is specified, the default is opensc-pkcs11.so. slotid= and/or token= may be specified to force the use of a particular smard card reader or token if there is more than one available. certid= and/or certlabel= may be specified to force the selection of a particular certificate on the device. See the pkinit_cert_match configuration option for more ways to select a particular certificate to use for pkinit.
ENV:environment-variable-name
environment-variable-name specifies the name of an environment variable which has been set to a value conforming to one of the previous values. For example, ENV:X509_PROXY, where environment variable X509_PROXY has been set to FILE:/tmp/my_proxy.pem.


Previous: pkinit identity syntax, Up: pkinit client options
3.3.10.2 pkinit krb5.conf options
pkinit_identities
Specifies the location(s) to be used to find the user's X.509 identity information. This option may be specified multiple times. Each value is attempted in order until identity information is found and authentication is attempted. Note that these values are not used if the user specifies X509_user_identity on the command line.
pkinit_anchors
Specifies the location of trusted anchor (root) certificates which the client trusts to sign KDC certificates. This option may be specified multiple times. These values from the config file are not used if the user specifies X509_anchors on the command line.
pkinit_pool
Specifies the location of intermediate certificates which may be used by the client to complete the trust chain between a KDC certificate and a trusted anchor. This option may be specified multiple times.
pkinit_revoke
Specifies the location of Certificate Revocation List (CRL) information to be used by the client when verifying the validity of the KDC certificate presented. This option may be specified multiple times.
pkinit_require_crl_checking
The default certificate verification process will always check the available revocation information to see if a certificate has been revoked. If a match is found for the certificate in a CRL, verification fails. If the certificate being verified is not listed in a CRL, or there is no CRL present for its issuing CA, and pkinit_require_crl_checking is false, then verification succeeds.

However, if pkinit_require_crl_checking is true and there is no CRL information available for the issuing CA, then verification fails.

pkinit_require_crl_checking should be set to true if the policy is such that up-to-date CRLs must be present for every CA.

pkinit_dh_min_bits
Specifies the size of the Diffie-Hellman key the client will attempt to use. The acceptable values are currently 1024, 2048, and 4096. The default is 2048.
pkinit_win2k
This flag specifies whether the target realm is assumed to support only the old, pre-RFC version of the protocol. The default is false.
pkinit_win2k_require_binding
If this flag is set to true, it expects that the target KDC is patched to return a reply with a checksum rather than a nonce. The default is false.
pkinit_eku_checking
This option specifies what Extended Key Usage value the KDC certificate presented to the client must contain. (Note that if the KDC certificate has the pkinit SubjectAlternativeName encoded as the Kerberos TGS name, EKU checking is not necessary since the issuing CA has certified this as a KDC certificate.) The values recognized in the krb5.conf file are:
kpKDC
This is the default value and specifies that the KDC must have the id-pkinit-KPKdc EKU as defined in RFC4556.
kpServerAuth
If kpServerAuth is specified, a KDC certificate with the id-kp-serverAuth EKU as used by Microsoft will be accepted.
none
If none is specified, then the KDC certificate will not be checked to verify it has an acceptable EKU. The use of this option is not recommended.

pkinit_kdc_hostname
The presense of this option indicates that the client is willing to accept a KDC certificate with a dNSName SAN (Subject Alternative Name) rather than requiring the id-pkinit-san as defined in RFC4556. This option may be specified multiple times. Its value should contain the acceptable hostname for the KDC (as contained in its certificate).
pkinit_cert_match
Specifies matching rules that the client certificate must match before it is used to attempt pkinit authentication. If a user has multiple certificates available (on a smart card, or via other media), there must be exactly one certificate chosen before attempting pkinit authentication. This option may be specified multiple times. All the available certificates are checked against each rule in order until there is a match of exactly one certificate.

The Subject and Issuer comparison strings are the RFC2253 string representations from the certificate Subject DN and Issuer DN values.

The syntax of the matching rules is:

          [relation-operator]component-rule ...
     

where

relation-operator
can be either &&, meaning all component rules must match, or ||, meaning only one component rule must match. The default is && if not specified.
component-rule
can be one of the following. Note that there is no punctuation or whitespace between component rules.
<SUBJECT>regular-expression
<ISSUER>regular-expression
<SAN>regular-expression
<EKU>extended-key-usage-list
where extended-key-usage-list is a comma-separated list of required Extended Key Usage values. All values in the list must be present in the certificate.
                    pkinit
                    msScLogin
                    clientAuth
                    emailProtection
               

<KU>key-usage-list
where key-usage-list is a comma-separated list of required Key Usage values. All values in the list must be present in the certificate.
                    digitalSignature
                    keyEncipherment
               
Examples:
          pkinit_cert_match = ||<SUBJECT>.*DoE.*<SAN>.*@EXAMPLE.COM
          pkinit_cert_match = &&<EKU>msScLogin,clientAuth<ISSUER>.*DoE.*
          pkinit_cert_match = <EKU>msScLogin,clientAuth<KU>digitalSignature
     


Previous: pkinit client options, Up: krb5.conf

3.3.11 Sample krb5.conf File

Here is an example of a generic krb5.conf file:

     [libdefaults]
         default_realm = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
         default_tkt_enctypes = des3-hmac-sha1 des-cbc-crc
         default_tgs_enctypes = des3-hmac-sha1 des-cbc-crc
         dns_lookup_kdc = true
         dns_lookup_realm = false
     
     [realms]
         ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
             kdc = kerberos.mit.edu
             kdc = kerberos-1.mit.edu
             kdc = kerberos-2.mit.edu:750
             admin_server = kerberos.mit.edu
             master_kdc = kerberos.mit.edu
             default_domain = mit.edu
         }
         EXAMPLE.COM = {
             kdc = kerberos.example.com
             kdc = kerberos-1.example.com
             admin_server = kerberos.example.com
         }
         OPENLDAP.MIT.EDU = {
             kdc = kerberos.mit.edu
             admin_server = kerberos.mit.edu
             database_module = openldap_ldapconf
         }
     
     [domain_realm]
         .mit.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
         mit.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
     
     [capaths]
         ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
         	EXAMPLE.COM = .
         }
         EXAMPLE.COM = {
         	ATHENA.MIT.EDU = .
         }
     
     [logging]
         kdc = SYSLOG:INFO
         admin_server = FILE=/var/kadm5.log
     [dbdefaults]
         ldap_kerberos_container_dn = cn=krbcontainer,o=mit
     [dbmodules]
         openldap_ldapconf = {
               db_library = kldap
               ldap_kerberos_container_dn = cn=krbcontainer,o=mit
               ldap_kdc_dn = "cn=krbadmin,o=mit"
                  # this object needs to have read rights on
                  # the realm container, principal container and realm sub-trees
               ldap_kadmind_dn = "cn=krbadmin,o=mit"
                  # this object needs to have read and write rights on
                  # the realm container, principal container and realm sub-trees
              ldap_service_password_file = /etc/kerberos/service.keyfile
              ldap_servers = ldaps://kerberos.mit.edu
              ldap_conns_per_server = 5
     }


Previous: krb5.conf, Up: Configuration Files

3.4 kdc.conf

The kdc.conf file contains KDC configuration information, including defaults used when issuing Kerberos tickets. Normally, you should install your kdc.conf file in the directory /usr/local/var/krb5kdc. You can override the default location by setting the environment variable KRB5_KDC_PROFILE.

The kdc.conf file is set up in the same format as the krb5.conf file. (See krb5.conf.) The kdc.conf file may contain any or all of the following three sections:

kdcdefaults
Contains default values for overall behavior of the KDC.
realms
Contains subsections keyed by Kerberos realm names. Each subsection describes realm-specific information, including where to find the Kerberos servers for that realm.
logging
Contains relations which determine how Kerberos programs are to perform logging.


Next: , Previous: kdc.conf, Up: kdc.conf

3.4.1 [kdcdefaults]

The following relation is defined in the [kdcdefaults] section:

kdc_ports
This relation lists the ports on which the Kerberos server should listen for UDP requests by default. This list is a comma separated list of integers. If this relation is not specified, the compiled-in default is 88,750, the first being the assigned Kerberos port and the second which was used by Kerberos V4.
kdc_tcp_ports
This relation lists the ports on which the Kerberos server should listen for TCP connections by default. This list is a comma separated list of integers. If this relation is not specified, the compiled-in default is not to listen for TCP connections at all.

If you wish to change this (which we do not recommend, because the current implementation has little protection against denial-of-service attacks), the standard port number assigned for Kerberos TCP traffic is port 88.

v4_mode
This string specifies how the KDC should respond to Kerberos 4 packets. The possible values are none, disable, full, and nopreauth. The default value is none.


Next: , Previous: kdcdefaults, Up: kdc.conf

3.4.2 [realms]

Each tag in the [realms] section of the file names a Kerberos realm. The value of the tag is a subsection where the relations in that subsection define KDC parameters for that particular realm.

For each realm, the following tags may be specified in the [realms] subsection:

acl_file
(String.) Location of the access control list (acl) file that kadmin uses to determine which principals are allowed which permissions on the database. The default is /usr/local/var/krb5kdc/kadm5.acl.
admin_keytab
(String.) Location of the keytab file that the legacy administration daemons kadmind4 and v5passwdd use to authenticate to the database. The default is /usr/local/var/krb5kdc/kadm5.keytab.
database_name
(String.) Location of the Kerberos database for this realm. The default is
/usr/local/var/krb5kdc/principal.
default_principal_expiration
(Absolute time string.) Specifies the default expiration date of principals created in this realm. The default value for this tag is 0.
default_principal_flags
(Flag string.) Specifies the default attributes of principals created in this realm. The format for this string is a comma-separated list of flags, with '+' before each flag that should be enabled and '-' before each flag that should be disabled. The default is postdateable, forwardable, tgt-based, renewable, proxiable, dup-skey, allow-tickets, and service enabled..

There are a number of possible flags:

postdateable
Enabling this flag allows the principal to obtain postdateable tickets.
forwardable
Enabling this flag allows the principal to obtain forwardable tickets.
tgt-based
Enabling this flag allows a principal to obtain tickets based on a ticket-granting-ticket, rather than repeating the authentication process that was used to obtain the TGT.
renewable
Enabling this flag allows the principal to obtain renewable tickets.
proxiable
Enabling this flag allows the principal to obtain proxy tickets.
dup-skey
Enabling this flag allows the principal to obtain a session key for another user, permitting user-to-user authentication for this principal.
allow-tickets
Enabling this flag means that the KDC will issue tickets for this principal. Disabling this flag essentially deactivates the principal within this realm.
preauth
If this flag is enabled on a client principal, then that principal is required to preauthenticate to the KDC before receiving any tickets. On a service principal, enabling this flag means that service tickets for this principal will only be issued to clients with a TGT that has the preauthenticated ticket set.
hwauth
If this flag is enabled, then the principal is required to preauthenticate using a hardware device before receiving any tickets.
pwchange
Enabling this flag forces a password change for this principal.
service
Enabling this flag allows the the KDC to issue service tickets for this principal.
pwservice
If this flag is enabled, it marks this principal as a password change service. This should only be used in special cases, for example, if a user's password has expired, then the user has to get tickets for that principal without going through the normal password authentication in order to be able to change the password.
dict_file
(String.) Location of the dictionary file containing strings that are not allowed as passwords. If none is specified or if there is no policy assigned to the principal, no dictionary checks of passwords will be performed.
kadmind_port
(Port number.) Specifies the port on which the kadmind daemon is to listen for this realm. The assigned port for kadmind is 749.
kpasswd_port
(Port number.) Specifies the port on which the kpasswd daemon is to listen for this realm. The default is 464.
key_stash_file
(String.) Specifies the location where the master key has been stored (via kdb5_util stash). The default is /usr/local/var/krb5kdc/.k5.REALM, where REALM is the Kerberos realm.
kdc_ports
(String.) Specifies the list of ports that the KDC is to listen to for UDP requests for this realm. By default, the value of kdc_ports as specified in the [kdcdefaults] section is used.
kdc_tcp_ports
(String.) Specifies the list of ports that the KDC is to listen to for TCP requests for this realm. By default, the value of kdc_tcp_ports as specified in the [kdcdefaults] section is used.
master_key_name
(String.) Specifies the name of the principal associated with the master key. The default is K/M.
master_key_type
(Key type string.) Specifies the master key's key type. The default value for this is des3-cbc-sha1. For a list of all possible values, see Supported Encryption Types.
max_life
(Delta time string.) Specifes the maximum time period for which a ticket may be valid in this realm. The default value is 10 hours.
max_renewable_life
(Delta time string.) Specifies the maximum time period during which a valid ticket may be renewed in this realm. The default value is 0.
supported_enctypes
List of key:salt strings. Specifies the default key/salt combinations of principals for this realm. Any principals created through kadmin will have keys of these types. The default value for this tag is des3-hmac-sha1:normal des-cbc-crc:normal. For lists of possible values, see Supported Encryption Types and Salts.
reject_bad_transit
A boolean value (true, false). If set to true, the KDC will check the list of transited realms for cross-realm tickets against the transit path computed from the realm names and the capaths section of its krb5.conf file; if the path in the ticket to be issued contains any realms not in the computed path, the ticket will not be issued, and an error will be returned to the client instead. If this value is set to false, such tickets will be issued anyways, and it will be left up to the application server to validate the realm transit path.

If the disable-transited-check flag is set in the incoming request, this check is not performed at all. Having the reject_bad_transit option will cause such ticket requests to be rejected always.

This transit path checking and config file option currently apply only to TGS requests.

Earlier versions of the MIT release (before 1.2.3) had bugs in the application server support such that the server-side checks may not be performed correctly. We recommend turning this option on, unless you know that all application servers in this realm have been updated to fixed versions of the software, and for whatever reason, you don't want the KDC to do the validation.

This is a per-realm option so that multiple-realm KDCs may control it separately for each realm, in case (for example) one realm has had the software on its application servers updated but another has not.

This option defaults to true.


Next: , Previous: realms (kdc.conf), Up: kdc.conf

3.4.3 pkinit options

The following are pkinit-specific options. Note that these values may be specified in [kdcdefaults] as global defaults, or within a realm-specific subsection of [realms]. Also note that a realm-specific value over-rides, does not add to, a generic [kdcdefaults] specification. The search order is:

  1. realm-specific subsection of [realms]
              [realms]
                  EXAMPLE.COM = {
                      pkinit_anchors = FILE:/usr/local/example.com.crt
                  }
         
  2. generic value in the [kdcdefaults] section.
              [kdcdefaults]
                  pkinit_anchors = DIR:/usr/local/generic_trusted_cas/
         


Previous: pkinit kdc options, Up: pkinit kdc options
3.4.3.1 pkinit kdc.conf options

For information about the syntax of some of these options, see See pkinit identity syntax.

pkinit_identity
Specifies the location of the KDC's X.509 identity information. This option is required if pkinit is to be supported by the KDC.
pkinit_anchors
Specifies the location of trusted anchor (root) certificates which the KDC trusts to sign client certificates. This option is required if pkinit is to be supported by the KDC. This option may be specified multiple times.
pkinit_pool
Specifies the location of intermediate certificates which may be used by the KDC to complete the trust chain between a client's certificate and a trusted anchor. This option may be specified multiple times.
pkinit_revoke
Specifies the location of Certificate Revocation List (CRL) information to be used by the KDC when verifying the validity of client certificates. This option may be specified multiple times.
pkinit_require_crl_checking
The default certificate verification process will always check the available revocation information to see if a certificate has been revoked. If a match is found for the certificate in a CRL, verification fails. If the certificate being verified is not listed in a CRL, or there is no CRL present for its issuing CA, and pkinit_require_crl_checking is false, then verification succeeds.

However, if pkinit_require_crl_checking is true and there is no CRL information available for the issuing CA, then verification fails.

pkinit_require_crl_checking should be set to true if the policy is such that up-to-date CRLs must be present for every CA.

pkinit_dh_min_bits
Specifies the minimum number of bits the KDC is willing to accept for a client's Diffie-Hellman key. The default is 2048.
pkinit_allow_upn
Specifies that the KDC is willing to accept client certificates with the Microsoft UserPrincipalName (UPN) Subject Alternative Name (SAN). This means the KDC accepts the binding of the UPN in the certificate to the Kerberos principal name.

The default is false.

Without this option, the KDC will only accept certificates with the id-pkinit-san as defined in RFC4556. There is currently no option to disable SAN checking in the KDC.

pkinit_eku_checking
This option specifies what Extended Key Usage (EKU) values the KDC is willing to accept in client certificates. The values recognized in the kdc.conf file are:
kpClientAuth
This is the default value and specifies that client certificates must have the id-pkinit-KPClientAuth EKU as defined in RFC4556.
scLogin
If scLogin is specified, client certificates with the Microsoft Smart Card Login EKU (id-ms-kp-sc-logon) will be accepted.
none
If none is specified, then client certificates will not be checked to verify they have an acceptable EKU. The use of this option is not recommended.


Previous: pkinit kdc options, Up: kdc.conf

3.4.4 Sample kdc.conf File

Here's an example of a kdc.conf file:

     [kdcdefaults]
         kdc_ports = 88
     
     [realms]
         ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
             kadmind_port = 749
             max_life = 12h 0m 0s
             max_renewable_life = 7d 0h 0m 0s
             master_key_type = des3-hmac-sha1
             supported_enctypes = des3-hmac-sha1:normal des-cbc-crc:normal des-cbc-crc:v4
         }
     
     [logging]
         kdc = FILE:/usr/local/var/krb5kdc/kdc.log
         admin_server = FILE:/usr/local/var/krb5kdc/kadmin.log


Next: , Previous: Configuration Files, Up: Top

4 Using DNS


Next: , Previous: Using DNS, Up: Using DNS

4.1 Mapping Hostnames onto Kerberos Realms

Mapping hostnames onto Kerberos realms is done in one of two ways.

The first mechanism, which has been in use for years in MIT-based Kerberos distributions, works through a set of rules in the krb5.conf configuration file. (See krb5.conf.) You can specify mappings for an entire domain or subdomain, and/or on a hostname-by-hostname basis. Since greater specificity takes precedence, you would do this by specifying the mappings for a given domain or subdomain and listing the exceptions.

The second mechanism works by looking up the information in special TXT records in the Domain Name Service. This is currently not used by default because security holes could result if the DNS TXT records were spoofed. If this mechanism is enabled on the client, it will try to look up a TXT record for the DNS name formed by putting the prefix _kerberos in front of the hostname in question. If that record is not found, it will try using _kerberos and the host's domain name, then its parent domain, and so forth. So for the hostname BOSTON.ENGINEERING.FOOBAR.COM, the names looked up would be:

     _kerberos.boston.engineering.foobar.com
     _kerberos.engineering.foobar.com
     _kerberos.foobar.com
     _kerberos.com

The value of the first TXT record found is taken as the realm name. (Obviously, this doesn't work all that well if a host and a subdomain have the same name, and different realms. For example, if all the hosts in the ENGINEERING.FOOBAR.COM domain are in the ENGINEERING.FOOBAR.COM realm, but a host named ENGINEERING.FOOBAR.COM is for some reason in another realm. In that case, you would set up TXT records for all hosts, rather than relying on the fallback to the domain name.)

Even if you do not choose to use this mechanism within your site, you may wish to set it up anyway, for use when interacting with other sites.


Previous: Mapping Hostnames onto Kerberos Realms, Up: Using DNS

4.2 Hostnames for KDCs

MIT recommends that your KDCs have a predefined set of CNAME records (DNS hostname aliases), such as kerberos for the master KDC and kerberos-1, kerberos-2, ... for the slave KDCs. This way, if you need to swap a machine, you only need to change a DNS entry, rather than having to change hostnames.

A new mechanism for locating KDCs of a realm through DNS has been added to the MIT Kerberos V5 distribution. A relatively new record type called SRV has been added to DNS. Looked up by a service name and a domain name, these records indicate the hostname and port number to contact for that service, optionally with weighting and prioritization. (See RFC 2782 if you want more information. You can follow the example below for straightforward cases.)

The use with Kerberos is fairly straightforward. The domain name used in the SRV record name is the domain-style Kerberos realm name. (It is possible to have Kerberos realm names that are not DNS-style names, but we don't recommend it for Internet use, and our code does not support it well.) Several different Kerberos-related service names are used:

_kerberos._udp
This is for contacting any KDC by UDP. This entry will be used the most often. Normally you should list port 88 on each of your KDCs.
_kerberos._tcp
This is for contacting any KDC by TCP. The MIT KDC by default will not listen on any TCP ports, so unless you've changed the configuration or you're running another KDC implementation, you should leave this unspecified. If you do enable TCP support, normally you should use port 88.
_kerberos-master._udp
This entry should refer to those KDCs, if any, that will immediately see password changes to the Kerberos database. This entry is used only in one case, when the user is logging in and the password appears to be incorrect; the master KDC is then contacted, and the same password used to try to decrypt the response, in case the user's password had recently been changed and the first KDC contacted hadn't been updated. Only if that fails is an “incorrect password” error given.

If you have only one KDC, or for whatever reason there is no accessible KDC that would get database changes faster than the others, you do not need to define this entry.

_kerberos-adm._tcp
This should list port 749 on your master KDC. Support for it is not complete at this time, but it will eventually be used by the kadmin program and related utilities. For now, you will also need the admin_server entry in krb5.conf. (See krb5.conf.)
_kpasswd._udp
This should list port 464 on your master KDC. It is used when a user changes her password.
_kerberos-iv._udp
This should refer to your KDCs that serve Kerberos version 4 requests, if you have Kerberos v4 enabled.

Be aware, however, that the DNS SRV specification requires that the hostnames listed be the canonical names, not aliases. So, for example, you might include the following records in your (BIND-style) zone file:

     $ORIGIN foobar.com.
     _kerberos               TXT       "FOOBAR.COM"
     kerberos                CNAME     daisy
     kerberos-1              CNAME     use-the-force-luke
     kerberos-2              CNAME     bunny-rabbit
     _kerberos._udp          SRV       0 0 88 daisy
                             SRV       0 0 88 use-the-force-luke
                             SRV       0 0 88 bunny-rabbit
     _kerberos-master._udp   SRV       0 0 88 daisy
     _kerberos-adm._tcp      SRV       0 0 749 daisy
     _kpasswd._udp           SRV       0 0 464 daisy

As with the DNS-based mechanism for determining the Kerberos realm of a host, we recommend distributing the information this way for use by other sites that may want to interact with yours using Kerberos, even if you don't immediately make use of it within your own site. If you anticipate installing a very large number of machines on which it will be hard to update the Kerberos configuration files, you may wish to do all of your Kerberos service lookups via DNS and not put the information (except for admin_server as noted above) in future versions of your krb5.conf files at all. Eventually, we hope to phase out the listing of server hostnames in the client-side configuration files; making preparations now will make the transition easier in the future.


Next: , Previous: Using DNS, Up: Top

5 Administrating the Kerberos Database

Your Kerberos database contains all of your realm's Kerberos principals, their passwords, and other administrative information about each principal. For the most part, you will use the kdb5_util program to manipulate the Kerberos database as a whole, and the kadmin program to make changes to the entries in the database. (One notable exception is that users will use the kpasswd program to change their own passwords.) The kadmin program has its own command-line interface, to which you type the database administrating commands.

Kdb5_util provides a means to create, delete, load, or dump a Kerberos database. It also includes a command to stash a copy of the master database key in a file on a KDC, so that the KDC can authenticate itself to the kadmind and krb5kdc daemons at boot time.

Kadmin provides for the maintenance of Kerberos principals, KADM5 policies, and service key tables (keytabs). It exists as both a Kerberos client, kadmin, using Kerberos authentication and an RPC, to operate securely from anywhere on the network, and as a local client, kadmin.local, intended to run directly on the KDC without Kerberos authentication. kadmin.local need not run on the kdc if the database is LDAP. Other than the fact that the remote client uses Kerberos to authenticate the person using it, the functionalities of the two versions are identical. The local version is necessary to enable you to set up enough of the database to be able to use the remote version. It replaces the now obsolete kdb5_edit (except for database dump and load, which are provided by kdb5_util).

The remote version authenticates to the KADM5 server using the service principal kadmin/admin. If the credentials cache contains a ticket for the kadmin/admin principal, and the -c ccache option is specified, that ticket is used to authenticate to KADM5. Otherwise, the -p and -k options are used to specify the client Kerberos principal name used to authenticate. Once kadmin has determined the principal name, it requests a kadmin/admin Kerberos service ticket from the KDC, and uses that service ticket to authenticate to KADM5.


Next: , Previous: Administrating the Kerberos Database, Up: Administrating the Kerberos Database

5.1 Kadmin Options

You can invoke kadmin or kadmin.local with any of the following options:

-r REALM
Use REALM as the default Kerberos realm for the database.
-p principal
Use the Kerberos principal principal to authenticate to Kerberos. If this option is not given, kadmin will append admin to either the primary principal name, the environment variable USER, or to the username obtained from getpwuid, in order of preference.
-q query
Pass query directly to kadmin. This is useful for writing scripts that pass specific queries to kadmin.

You can invoke kadmin with any of the following options:

-k [-t keytab]
Use the keytab keytab to decrypt the KDC response instead of prompting for a password on the TTY. In this case, the principal will be host/hostname. If -t is not used to specify a keytab, then the default keytab will be used.
-c credentials cache
Use credentials_cache as the credentials cache. The credentials cache should contain a service ticket for the kadmin/admin service, which can be acquired with the kinit program. If this option is not specified, kadmin requests a new service ticket from the KDC, and stores it in its own temporary ccache.
-w password
Use password as the password instead of prompting for one on the TTY. Note: placing the password for a Kerberos principal with administration access into a shell script can be dangerous if unauthorized users gain read access to the script.
-x db_args
Specifies the database specific arguments.
-x host=<hostname>
Specifies the LDAP server to connect to by a LDAP URI. It is recommend to use ldapi:// or ldaps:// interface to connect to the LDAP server.
-x binddn=<bind_dn>
Specifies the Distinguished Name (DN) of the object used by the administration server to bind to the LDAP server. This object should have the read and write rights on the realm container, principal container and realm subtree.
-x bindpwd=<bind_password>
Specifies the password for the above mentioned binddn. It is recommended not to use this option. Instead, the password can be stashed using the stashsrvpw command of kdb5_ldap_util.

Note: This database specific argument is applicable only to kadmin.local and the KADM5 server.

-s admin_server[:port]
Specifies the admin server that kadmin should contact.

You can invoke kadmin.local with an of the follwing options:

-d_ dbname
Specifies the name of the Kerberos database.
-e "enctypes ..."
Sets the list of cryptosystem and salt types to be used for any new keys created. See Supported Encryption Types and Salts for available types.
-m
Do not authenticate using a keytab. This option will cause kadmin to prompt for the master database password.


Next: , Previous: Kadmin Options, Up: Administrating the Kerberos Database

5.2 Date Format

Many of the kadmin commands take a duration or time as an argument. The date can appear in a wide variety of formats, such as:

     "15 minutes"
     "7 days"
     "1 month"
     "2 hours"
     "400000 seconds"
     "next year"
     "this Monday"
     "next Monday"
     yesterday
     tomorrow
     now
     "second Monday"
     fortnight
     "3/31/1992 10:00:07 PST"
     "January 23, 2007 10:05pm"
     "22:00 GMT"

Note that if the date specification contains spaces, you must enclose it in double quotes. Note also that you cannot use a number without a unit. (I.e., “"60 seconds"” is correct, but “60” is incorrect.) All keywords are case-insensitive. The following is a list of all of the allowable keywords.

Months
january, jan, february, feb, march, mar, april, apr, may, june, jun, july, jul, august, aug, september, sep, sept, october, oct, november, nov, december, dec
Days
sunday, sun, monday, mon, tuesday, tues, tue, wednesday, wednes, wed, thursday, thurs, thur, thu, friday, fri, saturday, sat
Units
year, month, fortnight, week, day, hour, minute, min, second, sec
Relative
tomorrow, yesterday, today, now, last, this, next, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, ago
Time Zones
kadmin recognizes abbreviations for most of the world's time zones. A complete listing appears in kadmin Time Zones.
12-hour Time Delimiters
am, pm


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5.3 Principals

Each entry in the Kerberos database contains a Kerberos principal (see Definitions) and the attributes and policies associated with that principal.