[ale] pam vs. shadow passwords

Dan Newcombe Newcombe at mordor.clayton.edu
Tue Feb 2 20:29:20 EST 1999


On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Matthew Brown wrote:
> Does anyone know of a database-driven authentication system?  I hope this
> isn't a RT*M question, but since the default is to use a rather unsecure
> ASCII file, I thought I'd ask.  Sure would be nice.

RTFM should never be an answer to a question.  Anyway, the shadow stuff
helps to get around that "rather unsecure" ascii file.  But, with PAM, you
should be able to write a module to interface with your favourite database
system, or even implement your own.

The nice thing about weak old text files is that a database is easier to
hose, and if that goes, good luck logging in :)

But what do I know - I'm still dumbstruck there is no NIS+ server for NT
Domains.






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