Network Information Services (NIS and NIS+) Guide

NIS+ Security Mechanisms

NIS+ security is an integral part of the NIS+ namespace. You cannot set up security independently from the namespace. For this reason, instructions for setting up security are woven through the steps used to set up the other components of the namespace. Once an NIS+ security environment has been set up, you can add and remove users, change permissions, reassign group members, and perform all other routine administrative tasks needed to manage an evolving network.

The security features of NIS+ protect the information in the namespace, as well as the structure of the namespace itself, from unauthorized access. Without these security features, any NIS+ client could obtain, change, or even damage information stored in the namespace.

NIS+ security serves two purposes:

Authentication

Authentication is used to identify NIS+ principals. Every time a principal (either user or machine) tries to access an NIS+ object, the user's identity and secure RPC password is confirmed and validated. (You should not have to enter a password as part of the authentication process. However, if for some reason your secure RPC password is different from your login password, you must perform a keylogin the first time you try accessing NIS+ objects or services. To perform a keylogin, you must provide a valid secure RPC password. See Secure RPC Password versus Login Password.)

Authorization

Authorization is used to specify access rights. Every time NIS+ principals try to access NIS+ objects, they are placed in one of four authorization classes (owner, group, world, nobody). The NIS+ security system allows NIS+ administrators to specify different read, modify, create, or destroy rights to NIS+ objects for each class. For example, a given class could be permitted to modify a particular column in the passwd table but not read that column, or a different class could be allowed to read some entries of a particular table but not others.

For example, a given NIS+ table may allow one class to both read and modify the information in the table, but a different class is only allowed to read the information, and a third class is not even allowed to do that. This is similar in concept to the operating system's file and directory permissions system. (See Authorization Classes for more information on classes.)

Authentication and authorization prevents someone with root privileges on machine A from using the su command to assume the identity of a second user who is either not logged in at all or logged in on machine B, and then accessing NIS+ objects with the second user's NIS+ access privileges.

Note, however, that NIS+ cannot prevent someone who knows another user's login password from assuming that other user's identity and NIS+ access privileges. Nor can NIS+ prevent a user with root privileges from assuming the identity of another user who is logged in from the same machine.

The following figure details this process.

Figure 7-1. Summary of NIS+ Security Process. This illustration shows a representation of the NIS+ security process.

1. The client/principal requests an NIS+ server to grant access to an NIS+ object.
2. The server authenticates the client's identity by examining the client's credentials.
3. The clients with valid credentials are placed in the world class.
4. The clients without valid credentials are placed in the nobody class.
5. The server examines the object's definition to determine the client's class.
6. If the access rights granted to the client's class match the type of operation requested, the operation is performed.

NIS+ Principals

NIS+ principals are the entities (clients) that submit requests for NIS+ services. An NIS+ principal may be someone who is logged in to a client machine as a regular user, someone who is logged in as root user, or any process that runs with root user permission on an NIS+ client machine. Thus, an NIS+ principal can be a client user or a client workstation.

An NIS+ principal can also be the entity that supplies an NIS+ service from an NIS+ server. Because all NIS+ servers are also NIS+ clients, much of this discussion also applies to servers.

NIS+ Security Levels

NIS+ servers operate at one of two security levels. These levels determine the types of credential principals must submit for their requests to be authenticated. NIS+ is designed to run at the most secure level, which is security level 2. Level 0 is provided only for testing, setup, and debugging purposes. These security levels are summarized in the following table.

Note: Use Web-based System Manager, SMIT, or the passwd command to change your own password regardless of security level or credential status.