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<h1><a href="../index.html"
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<h2>On this page </h2>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Developing with GSSAPI</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#name-types">Name types</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#initiator-credentials">Initiator credentials</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#acceptor-names">Acceptor names</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#importing-and-exporting-credentials">Importing and exporting credentials</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="init_creds.html">Initial credentials</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="princ_handle.html">Principal manipulation and parsing</a></li>
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<div class="section" id="developing-with-gssapi">
<h1>Developing with GSSAPI<a class="headerlink" href="#developing-with-gssapi" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The GSSAPI (Generic Security Services API) allows applications to
communicate securely using Kerberos 5 or other security mechanisms.
We recommend using the GSSAPI (or a higher-level framework which
encompasses GSSAPI, such as SASL) for secure network communication
over using the libkrb5 API directly.</p>
<p>GSSAPIv2 is specified in <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2743.html"><strong>RFC 2743</strong></a> and <span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html"><strong>RFC 2744</strong></a>. This
documentation will describe how various ways of using GSSAPI will
behave with the krb5 mechanism as implemented in MIT krb5, as well as
krb5-specific extensions to the GSSAPI.</p>
<div class="section" id="name-types">
<h2>Name types<a class="headerlink" href="#name-types" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A GSSAPI application can name a local or remote entity by calling
<a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.16">gss_import_name</a>, specifying a name type and a value. The following
name types are supported by the krb5 mechanism:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>GSS_C_NT_HOSTBASED_SERVICE</strong>: The value should be a string of the
form <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">service</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">service@hostname</span></tt>. This is the most common
way to name target services when initiating a security context, and
is the most likely name type to work across multiple mechanisms.</li>
<li><strong>GSS_KRB5_NT_PRINCIPAL_NAME</strong>: The value should be a principal name
string. This name type only works with the krb5 mechanism, and is
defined in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><gssapi_krb5.h></span></tt> header.</li>
<li><strong>GSS_C_NT_USER_NAME</strong> or <strong>GSS_C_NULL_OID</strong>: The value is treated
as an unparsed principal name string, as above. These name types
may work with mechanisms other than krb5, but will have different
interpretations in those mechanisms. <strong>GSS_C_NT_USER_NAME</strong> is
intended to be used with a local username, which will parse into a
single-component principal in the default realm.</li>
<li><strong>GSS_C_NT_ANONYMOUS</strong>: The value is ignored. The anonymous
principal is used, allowing a client to authenticate to a server
without asserting a particular identity (which may or may not be
allowed by a particular server or Kerberos realm).</li>
<li><strong>GSS_C_NT_MACHINE_UID_NAME</strong>: The value is uid_t object. On
Unix-like systems, the username of the uid is looked up in the
system user database and the resulting username is parsed as a
principal name.</li>
<li><strong>GSS_C_NT_STRING_UID_NAME</strong>: As above, but the value is a decimal
string representation of the uid.</li>
<li><strong>GSS_C_NT_EXPORT_NAME</strong>: The value must be the result of a
<a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.13">gss_export_name</a> call.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="initiator-credentials">
<h2>Initiator credentials<a class="headerlink" href="#initiator-credentials" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A GSSAPI client application uses <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.19">gss_init_sec_context</a> to establish a
security context. The <em>initiator_cred_handle</em> parameter determines
what tickets are used to establish the connection. An application can
either pass <strong>GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL</strong> to use the default client
credential, or it can use <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.2">gss_acquire_cred</a> beforehand to acquire an
initiator credential. The call to <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.2">gss_acquire_cred</a> may include a
<em>desired_name</em> parameter, or it may pass <strong>GSS_C_NO_NAME</strong> if it does
not have a specific name preference.</p>
<p>If the desired name for a krb5 initiator credential is a host-based
name, it is converted to a principal name of the form
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">service/hostname</span></tt> in the local realm, where <em>hostname</em> is the local
hostname if not specified. The hostname will be canonicalized using
forward name resolution, and possibly also using reverse name
resolution depending on the value of the <strong>rdns</strong> variable in
<a class="reference internal" href="../admin/conf_files/krb5_conf.html#libdefaults"><em>[libdefaults]</em></a>.</p>
<p>If a desired name is specified in the call to <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.2">gss_acquire_cred</a>, the
krb5 mechanism will attempt to find existing tickets for that client
principal name in the default credential cache or collection. If the
default cache type does not support a collection, and the default
cache contains credentials for a different principal than the desired
name, a <strong>GSS_S_CRED_UNAVAIL</strong> error will be returned with a minor
code indicating a mismatch.</p>
<p>If no existing tickets are available for the desired name, but the
name has an entry in the default client <a class="reference internal" href="../basic/keytab_def.html#keytab-definition"><em>keytab</em></a>, the
krb5 mechanism will acquire initial tickets for the name using the
default client keytab.</p>
<p>If no desired name is specified, credential acquisition will be
deferred until the credential is used in a call to
<a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.19">gss_init_sec_context</a> or <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.21">gss_inquire_cred</a>. If the call is to
<a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.19">gss_init_sec_context</a>, the target name will be used to choose a client
principal name using the credential cache selection facility. (This
facility might, for instance, try to choose existing tickets for a
client principal in the same realm as the target service). If there
are no existing tickets for the chosen principal, but it is present in
the default client keytab, the krb5 mechanism will acquire initial
tickets using the keytab.</p>
<p>If the target name cannot be used to select a client principal
(because the credentials are used in a call to <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.21">gss_inquire_cred</a>), or
if the credential cache selection facility cannot choose a principal
for it, the default credential cache will be selected if it exists and
contains tickets.</p>
<p>If the default credential cache does not exist, but the default client
keytab does, the krb5 mechanism will try to acquire initial tickets
for the first principal in the default client keytab.</p>
<p>If the krb5 mechanism acquires initial tickets using the default
client keytab, the resulting tickets will be stored in the default
cache or collection, and will be refreshed by future calls to
<a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.2">gss_acquire_cred</a> as they approach their expire time.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="acceptor-names">
<h2>Acceptor names<a class="headerlink" href="#acceptor-names" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A GSSAPI server application uses <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.1">gss_accept_sec_context</a> to establish
a security context based on tokens provided by the client. The
<em>acceptor_cred_handle</em> parameter determines what
<a class="reference internal" href="../basic/keytab_def.html#keytab-definition"><em>keytab</em></a> entries may be authenticated to by the
client, if the krb5 mechanism is used.</p>
<p>The simplest choice is to pass <strong>GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL</strong> as the acceptor
credential. In this case, clients may authenticate to any service
principal in the default keytab (typically <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FILE:/etc/krb5.keytab</span></tt>, or the value of
the <strong>KRB5_KTNAME</strong> environment variable). This is the recommended
approach if the server application has no specific requirements to the
contrary.</p>
<p>A server may acquire an acceptor credential with <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.2">gss_acquire_cred</a> and
a <em>cred_usage</em> of <strong>GSS_C_ACCEPT</strong> or <strong>GSS_C_BOTH</strong>. If the
<em>desired_name</em> parameter is <strong>GSS_C_NO_NAME</strong>, then clients will be
allowed to authenticate to any service principal in the default
keytab, just as if no acceptor credential was supplied.</p>
<p>If a server wishes to specify a <em>desired_name</em> to <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.2">gss_acquire_cred</a>,
the most common choice is a host-based name. If the host-based
<em>desired_name</em> contains just a <em>service</em>, then clients will be allowed
to authenticate to any host-based service principal (that is, a
principal of the form <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">service/hostname@REALM</span></tt>) for the named
service, regardless of hostname or realm, as long as it is present in
the default keytab. If the input name contains both a <em>service</em> and a
<em>hostname</em>, clients will be allowed to authenticate to any host-based
principal for the named service and hostname, regardless of realm.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If a <em>hostname</em> is specified, it will be canonicalized
using forward name resolution, and possibly also using
reverse name resolution depending on the value of the
<strong>rdns</strong> variable in <a class="reference internal" href="../admin/conf_files/krb5_conf.html#libdefaults"><em>[libdefaults]</em></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If the <strong>ignore_acceptor_hostname</strong> variable in
<a class="reference internal" href="../admin/conf_files/krb5_conf.html#libdefaults"><em>[libdefaults]</em></a> is enabled, then <em>hostname</em> will be
ignored even if one is specified in the input name.</p>
</div>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">In MIT krb5 versions prior to 1.10, and in Heimdal’s
implementation of the krb5 mechanism, an input name with
just a <em>service</em> is treated like an input name of
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">service@localhostname</span></tt>, where <em>localhostname</em> is the
string returned by gethostname().</p>
</div>
<p>If the <em>desired_name</em> is a krb5 principal name or a local system name
type which is mapped to a krb5 principal name, clients will only be
allowed to authenticate to that principal in the default keytab.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="importing-and-exporting-credentials">
<h2>Importing and exporting credentials<a class="headerlink" href="#importing-and-exporting-credentials" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The following GSSAPI extensions can be used to import and export
credentials (declared in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><gssapi/gssapi_ext.h></span></tt>):</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>OM_uint32 gss_export_cred(OM_uint32 *minor_status,
gss_cred_id_t cred_handle,
gss_buffer_t token);
OM_uint32 gss_import_cred(OM_uint32 *minor_status,
gss_buffer_t token,
gss_cred_id_t *cred_handle);</pre>
</div>
<p>The first function serializes a GSSAPI credential handle into a
buffer; the second unseralizes a buffer into a GSSAPI credential
handle. Serializing a credential does not destroy it. If any of the
mechanisms used in <em>cred_handle</em> do not support serialization,
gss_export_cred will return <strong>GSS_S_UNAVAILABLE</strong>. As with other
GSSAPI serialization functions, these extensions are only intended to
work with a matching implementation on the other side; they do not
serialize credentials in a standardized format.</p>
<p>A serialized credential may contain secret information such as ticket
session keys. The serialization format does not protect this
information from eavesdropping or tampering. The calling application
must take care to protect the serialized credential when communicating
it over an insecure channel or to an untrusted party.</p>
<p>A krb5 GSSAPI credential may contain references to a credential cache,
a client keytab, an acceptor keytab, and a replay cache. These
resources are normally serialized as references to their external
locations (such as the filename of the credential cache). Because of
this, a serialized krb5 credential can only be imported by a process
with similar privileges to the exporter. A serialized credential
should not be trusted if it originates from a source with lower
privileges than the importer, as it may contain references to external
credential cache, keytab, or replay cache resources not accessible to
the originator.</p>
<p>An exception to the above rule applies when a krb5 GSSAPI credential
refers to a memory credential cache, as is normally the case for
delegated credentials received by <a class="reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2744.html#section-5.1">gss_accept_sec_context</a>. In this
case, the contents of the credential cache are serialized, so that the
resulting token may be imported even if the original memory credential
cache no longer exists.</p>
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