authuser

Section: C Library Functions (3)
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

authuser - remote authentication library using the Authentication Server  

SYNTAX

#include <authuser.h>

int auth_casecmp(u,v);
char *u;
char *v;

char *auth_xline(user,fd,&in);

int auth_fd(fd,&in,&local,&remote);

char *auth_tcpuser(in,local,remote);

char *user;
int fd;
unsigned long in;
unsigned short local;
unsigned short remote;  

DESCRIPTION

The authuser library provides a simple interface for finding out the remote identity of a connection through the Authentication Server as specified by RFC 931.

Static strings authuserauthor[], authuserversion[], authusercopyright[], authuserwarranty[], and authuserhelp[] contain the authorship notice, version number, copyright notice, warranty information, and help notice respectively.

auth_casecmp(u,v) returns 0 if the strings are equal, 1 if the first is larger, -1 if the second is larger. Case is ignored.

auth_xline(user,fd,&in) returns a line of the form X-Auth-User: username or X-Forgery-By: username, depending upon what the host on the other side of fd thinks of the user. This is particularly appropriate for mail and news headers. The line is stored in a static area which is overwritten on each call to auth_xline. If fd is not a TCP connection or authentication is impossible, auth_xline returns NULL, setting errno appropriately. If user is NULL, it never returns X-Forgery-By. The line is not cr-lf terminated. auth_xline places the Internet address of the other host into in.

auth_fd(fd,&in,&local,&remote) retrieves address information from the connection in socket fd. It places the Internet address of the host on other side into in and the local and remote TCP ports into local and remote. auth_fd returns -1 upon error, setting errno appropriately.

auth_tcpuser(in,local,remote) returns the name of the user on the other end of the TCP connection between remote@in and local. If authentication is impossible, auth_tcpuser returns NULL, setting errno appropriately. The user name is stored in a static area which is overwritten on each call to auth_tcpuser and auth_xline.

 

MACHINES

authuser has been tested on an Astronautics ZS-2 running ZSUnix, a Sun 3 running SunOS, a Sun 4 running SunOS, a Convex C-210 running Convex UNIX, and several other machines.  

RESTRICTIONS

authuser does no backslash interpretation upon the remote user name. Hopefully the next revision of RFC 931 will make clear exactly what backslash interpretation should be going on.

authuser does not use the operating system type information provided by the Authentication Server.  

VERSION

authuser version 2.0, dated April 2, 1990.  

AUTHOR

Copyright 1990, Daniel J. Bernstein.  

REFERENCES

The authentication server is more secure than passwords in some ways, but less secure than passwords in many ways. (It's certainly better than no password at all---e.g., for mail or news.) It is not the final solution. For an excellent discussion of security problems within the TCP/IP protocol suite, see Steve Bellovin's article ``Security Problems in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite.''  

SEE ALSO

authtcp(1), authd(1), attachport(1), tcp(4)


 

Index

NAME
SYNTAX
DESCRIPTION
MACHINES
RESTRICTIONS
VERSION
AUTHOR
REFERENCES
SEE ALSO

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 21:50:07 GMT, February 02, 2023