Provided by: nfs-common_1.3.4-2.1ubuntu5.5_amd64 bug

NAME

       rpc.gssd - RPCSEC_GSS daemon

SYNOPSIS

       rpc.gssd [-DfMnlvr] [-k keytab] [-p pipefsdir] [-d ccachedir] [-t timeout] [-R realm]

INTRODUCTION

       The  RPCSEC_GSS protocol, defined in RFC 5403, is used to provide strong security for RPC-
       based protocols such as NFS.

       Before exchanging RPC requests using RPCSEC_GSS,  an  RPC  client  must  establish  a  GSS
       security  context.   A security context is shared state on each end of a network transport
       that enables GSS-API security services.

       Security contexts  are  established  using  security  credentials.   A  credential  grants
       temporary  access  to  a secure network service, much as a railway ticket grants temporary
       access to use a rail service.

       A user typically obtains a credential by providing a password to the kinit(1) command,  or
       via  a PAM library at login time.  A credential acquired with a user principal is known as
       a user credential (see kerberos(1) for more on principals).

       For certain operations, a credential is required which represents no  user,  is  otherwise
       unprivileged, and is always available.  This is referred to as a machine credential.

       Machine  credentials  are typically established using a service principal, whose encrypted
       password, called its key, is stored in a file, called a keytab, to avoid requiring a  user
       prompt.   A machine credential effectively does not expire because the system can renew it
       as needed without user intervention.

       Once obtained, credentials are typically stored in local temporary files  with  well-known
       pathnames.

DESCRIPTION

       To  establish  GSS  security  contexts  using these credential files, the Linux kernel RPC
       client depends on a userspace daemon  called  rpc.gssd.   The  rpc.gssd  daemon  uses  the
       rpc_pipefs filesystem to communicate with the kernel.

   User Credentials
       When  a  user  authenticates using a command such as kinit(1), the resulting credential is
       stored in a file with a well-known name constructed using the user's UID.

       To interact with an NFS server on behalf of a particular Kerberos-authenticated user,  the
       Linux  kernel  RPC  client  requests  that rpc.gssd initialize a security context with the
       credential in that user's credential file.

       Typically, credential files  are  placed  in  /tmp.   However,  rpc.gssd  can  search  for
       credential  files  in  more  than one directory.  See the description of the -d option for
       details.

   Machine Credentials
       A user credential is established by a  user  and  is  then  shared  with  the  kernel  and
       rpc.gssd.  A machine credential is established by rpc.gssd for the kernel when there is no
       user.  Therefore rpc.gssd must already have  the  materials  on  hand  to  establish  this
       credential without requiring user intervention.

       rpc.gssd  searches  the  local system's keytab for a principal and key to use to establish
       the machine credential.  By default, rpc.gssd assumes the file  /etc/krb5.keytab  contains
       principals and keys that can be used to obtain machine credentials.

       rpc.gssd  searches  in  the  following  order  for a principal to use.  The first matching
       credential is used.  For the search, <hostname> and <REALM> are replaced  with  the  local
       system's hostname and Kerberos realm.

          <HOSTNAME>$@<REALM>
          root/<hostname>@<REALM>
          nfs/<hostname>@<REALM>
          host/<hostname>@<REALM>
          root/<anyname>@<REALM>
          nfs/<anyname>@<REALM>
          host/<anyname>@<REALM>

       The <anyname> entries match on the service name and realm, but ignore the hostname.  These
       can be used if a principal matching the local host's name is not found.

       Note that the first principal in the  search  order  is  a  user  principal  that  enables
       Kerberized  NFS when the local system is joined to an Active Directory domain using Samba.
       A password for this principal must be provided in the local system's keytab.

       You can specify another keytab by using the -k option if /etc/krb5.keytab does  not  exist
       or does not provide one of these principals.

   Credentials for UID 0
       UID  0  is  a special case.  By default rpc.gssd uses the system's machine credentials for
       UID 0 accesses that require GSS authentication.  This limits the privileges  of  the  root
       user when accessing network resources that require authentication.

       Specify  the  -n  option  when  starting  rpc.gssd if you'd like to force the root user to
       obtain a user credential rather than use the local system's machine credential.

       When -n is specified, the kernel continues to request a GSS  context  established  with  a
       machine  credential for NFSv4 operations, such as SETCLIENTID or RENEW, that manage state.
       If rpc.gssd cannot obtain a machine credential (say, the  local  system  has  no  keytab),
       NFSv4 operations that require machine credentials will fail.

   Encryption types
       A  realm  administrator can choose to add keys encoded in a number of different encryption
       types to the local system's keytab.  For instance, a host/ principal might have  keys  for
       the  aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96,  aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96,  des3-cbc-sha1,  and  arcfour-hmac
       encryption types.  This permits rpc.gssd to choose an appropriate encryption type that the
       target NFS server supports.

       These  encryption  types  are  stronger  than  legacy  single-DES  encryption  types.   To
       interoperate in environments where servers support only weak  encryption  types,  you  can
       restrict  your  client to use only single-DES encryption types by specifying the -l option
       when starting rpc.gssd.

OPTIONS

       -D     The server name passed to GSSAPI for authentication is normally the name exactly as
              requested.   e.g.  for  NFS  it  is the server name in the "servername:/path" mount
              request.  Only if this servername appears to be an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) or  an
              unqualified  name  (no dots) will a reverse DNS lookup will be performed to get the
              canoncial server name.

              If -D is present, a reverse DNS lookup will always be used, even if the server name
              looks  like  a  canonical  name.   So  it  is needed if partially qualified, or non
              canonical names are regularly used.

              Using -D can introduce a security vulnerability, so it is recommended that  -D  not
              be used, and that canonical names always be used when requesting services.

       -f     Runs rpc.gssd in the foreground and sends output to stderr (as opposed to syslogd)

       -n     When  specified,  UID 0 is forced to obtain user credentials which are used instead
              of the local system's machine credentials.

       -k keytab
              Tells rpc.gssd to use the keys found in keytab to obtain machine credentials.   The
              default value is /etc/krb5.keytab.

       -l     When  specified,  restricts  rpc.gssd  to sessions to weak encryption types such as
              des-cbc-crc.  This option is  available  only  when  the  local  system's  Kerberos
              library supports settable encryption types.

       -p path
              Tells  rpc.gssd  where to look for the rpc_pipefs filesystem.  The default value is
              /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs.

       -d search-path
              This option specifies a colon separated list of directories that rpc.gssd  searches
              for  credential  files.   The  default  value  is  /tmp:/run/user/%U.   The literal
              sequence "%U" can  be  specified  to  substitue  the  UID  of  the  user  for  whom
              credentials are being searched.

       -M     By  default,  machine credentials are stored in files in the first directory in the
              credential directory search path (see the -d option).  When  -M  is  set,  rpc.gssd
              stores machine credentials in memory instead.

       -v     Increases the verbosity of the output (can be specified multiple times).

       -r     If  the RPCSEC_GSS library supports setting debug level, increases the verbosity of
              the output (can be specified multiple times).

       -R realm
              Kerberos tickets  from  this  realm  will  be  preferred  when  scanning  available
              credentials  cache  files  to be used to create a context.  By default, the default
              realm, as configured in the Kerberos configuration file, is preferred.

       -t timeout
              Timeout, in seconds, for kernel GSS contexts. This option allows you to  force  new
              kernel  contexts  to  be  negotiated  after  timeout seconds, which allows changing
              Kerberos tickets and identities frequently.  The default is  no  explicit  timeout,
              which  means  the  kernel  context  will  live the lifetime of the Kerberos service
              ticket used in its creation.

       -T timeout
              Timeout, in seconds, to create an RPC connection with a server  while  establishing
              an  authenticated gss context for a user.  The default timeout is set to 5 seconds.
              If you get messages like "WARNING: can't create tcp rpc_clnt to server %servername%
              for  user  with  uid  %uid%:  RPC: Remote system error - Connection timed out", you
              should consider an increase of this timeout.

SEE ALSO

       rpc.svcgssd(8), kerberos(1), kinit(1), krb5.conf(5)

AUTHORS

       Dug Song <dugsong@umich.edu>
       Andy Adamson <andros@umich.edu>
       Marius Aamodt Eriksen <marius@umich.edu>
       J. Bruce Fields <bfields@umich.edu>

                                           20 Feb 2013                                rpc.gssd(8)