Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!jaytee!hinode!geoff
From: geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: Password program needed.
Message-ID: <3589@jaytee.East.Sun.COM>
Date: 11 Dec 90 03:36:52 GMT
References: <1741@fornax.UUCP> <90342.015839TOMIII@MTUS5.BITNET>
Sender: news@East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: geoff@east.sun.com (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Organization: Sun Microsystems PC-NFS Engineering
Lines: 36

Quoth TOMIII@MTUS5.BITNET (Thomas Dwyer III) (in <90342.015839TOMIII@MTUS5.BITNET>):
#In article <1741@fornax.UUCP>, chin@fornax.UUCP (Hong Wai Chin) says:
#>
#>HI, I need a program which will perform similary to NET NAME USERID *
#>command but not giving user for a "Abort, Ignore, Retry" option if
#>the user put in the wrong passwd. I need the password security in order
#>to exclude people from using some resources( e.g. files, printers etc. )
#>ANy help will be appreciated.
#>
#>fred chin@fornax.UUCP

[I tried to reply to Fred, but email bounced.] What behaviour
DO you want to see if the authentication fails? Or are you saying
you want a Toolkit routine to authenticate a username/password
and another one to set the uid/gid?

#Good luck.  I've been trying to do this for months.  It is possible to
#change your uid/gid with a simple program, but I know of no simple way
#to authenticate a password.  In this respect, I find the toolkit very
#lacking.

I guess I can't win. Half the folks are demanding that I tighten
up security, the others want me to provide hooks to let you plug in
an arbitrary uid/gid.  However, I'm surprised at what you say.
If you indeed know how to plug your uid/gid into the PCNFS.SYS
data structures, you've solved the hard part. The rest is no more
than a "callrpc()" away. After all, you have the server side:
how hard is it to write the client? I confess: I was asked
not to include the pcnfsd.x RPCGEN source in the PCNFSD.C file (that
damned idea of "security through obscurity"), but it's published
for all the world to see in the X/Open PC Interworking (PC)NFS spec.

-- Geoff Arnold, PC-NFS architect, Sun Microsystems. (geoff@East.Sun.COM)   --
*** For the 22nd month in a row, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer   ***
*** (then John Major, now PM) has announced that "inflation has peaked     ***
*** and will now begin to fall." And he managed to keep a straight face... ***