Provided by: dacs_1.4.28b-3ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       pamd - PAM transaction server

SYNOPSIS

       pamd [dacsoptions[1]] [-daemon] [-fork] [-h hostname] [-http] [-inetd] [-nofork]
            [-p portnum] [-policy name] [-secure] [-unsecure]

DESCRIPTION

       This program is part of the DACS suite.

       The pamd server is required by the local_pam_authenticate[2] authentication module. It
       acts as a proxy for local_pam_authenticate, calling PAM functions on its behalf. The pamd
       server may be started from inetd(8)[3] or from the command line, but it must be running
       for DACS to perform PAM-based authentication.

       Each pamd process is involved in an arbitrarily long "conversation" or "transaction" with
       one or more executions of local_pam_authenticate. For instance, pamd's initial response to
       local_pam_authenticate might be that it requires an account name; upon receiving the
       account name from local_pam_authenticate, pamd's response might be that it requires the
       password for the account; and upon receiving the password, pamd would indicate success or
       failure, depending on whether an acceptable username/password pair was received. The
       eventual outcome of a transaction is that authentication succeeds, fails, or could not be
       completed because an error occurs.

       pamd must be run on the host where pam(3)[4] processing is being performed, which is not
       necessarily the same host where local_pam_authenticate is executed.

           Securitypamd will usually be run as root so that it can access the files it needs to
               perform authentication.

           •   pamd is not a DACS web service and is not protected by DACS.

           •   The protocol between pamd and its client may include sensitive material, such as
               passwords. If both programs are run on the same host, this is probably not an
               issue. If there is any possibility of eavesdropping etc. by an attacker, however,
               communication should be secured through an SSL wrapper.

           •   pamd should probably not be run on a world-accessible server, since it would offer
               a way for attackers to try to guess passwords.

       The operating system's PAM policy file is consulted - see pam.conf(5)[5]. The default PAM
       service name is "dacs" (see pam_start(3)[6]), which may be used by PAM to locate the
       appropriate policy file. A different policy name can be specified using the -policy flag.

       The prompts that passed from PAM to pamd to local_pam_authenticate to dacs_authenticate
       (or dacsauth) are simply displayed to the user. The user must understand what the prompts
       mean (e.g., that "Login:" means to provide a Unix account name).

       pamd can be used by non-DACS applications. The protocol, though simple, is not yet
       documented other than within the source code. A program called pamd-client is available
       for testing and debugging pamd; it is built when PAM support is required, but is neither
       installed nor documented (see the source code for basic instructions).

OPTIONS

       In addition to the standard dacsoptions[1], pamd recognizes these command line flags:

       -daemon
           Wait for a connection, then service the request. Mutually exclusive with -inetd.

       -fork
           Create a new process to service each request. It implies the -daemon flag.

       -h hostname
           If pamd is running on a host with multiple IP addresses, this specifies the hostname
           (or IP address) to listen to for incoming requests. If not provided, the PAMD_HOST[7]
           directive will be consulted; if unavailable, gethostname(3)[8] will be used.

       -http
           This flag is reserved for future use.

       -inetd
           The server assumes it has been started by inetd(8)[3] and therefore does not wait for
           a connection. It exits after servicing the request. This is the default behaviour and
           preferred way to configure pamd. This mode of operation assumes that an entry has been
           added to inetd.conf(5)[9] that looks much like this:

               dacs-pamd stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/dacs/sbin/pamd pamd -uj EXAMPLE -inetd

       -nofork
           This flag, which implies the -daemon, causes the pamd server to exit after servicing
           one request (which is useful when debugging). This is the default behaviour of -daemon
           mode.

       -p portnum
           This specifies the port number to listen to, overriding any PAMD_PORT[10] directive in
           effect. It can also be a service name. Any otherwise unassigned port number on the
           system from 49152 through 65535 (i.e., one in the dynamic and/or private range) ought
           to be acceptable.

           If neither this flag nor a PAMD_PORT directive is provided, the program will try to
           find the port associated with the dacs-pamd service name in services(5)[11]. For
           example:

               dacs-pamd       17000/tcp  # DACS pamd

       -policy name
           Use name as the PAM policy name instead of the default.

       -secure
           The client must supply valid DACS administrative credentials encapsulated within a
           DACS cookie. This is the default.

       -unsecure
           Administrative credentials are not required, but if they are provided they must be
           valid. This should probably be used only when testing or if client identification is
           not an issue or has been addressed in some other way.

           Note
           When the -secure flag is in effect, pamd must be associated with a jurisdiction.
           Therefore, the DACS configuration files are read and the jurisdiction must be
           specified on the command line (e.g., using the -uj flag).

EXAMPLE

       For testing purposes, or to better understand how pamd works, you can run it manually and
       interact with it using telnet(1)[12], for example, which takes the place of
       local_pam_authenticate. You must have PAM authentication configured on the host where you
       run pamd and you will probably need to run it as root. This is best done using two
       windows; start pamd in the first window and then telnet to it from the second window.

       An interaction to perform username/password authentication will look something like the
       following (substitute your jurisdiction's name for myjur, your jurisdiction's domain name
       or IP address for myjur.example.com, and use a username and password pair that is
       recognized on your system). The first telnet connection receives a prompt for a username
       (labeled "Login:" and assigned the variable name AUTH_PROMPT_VAR1) from pamd, a
       transaction identifier (TRANSID) "10.0.0.124:56372:66664:53983facb39881b2" for this
       session, and port number to use for subsequent operations belonging to this transaction
       (62475). The second telnet connection provides the TRANSID and username
       (AUTH_PROMPT_VAR1="auggie"), and receives a prompt for a password ("Password:", assigned
       the variable name AUTH_PROMPT_VAR2). The third telnet connection provides the TRANSID and
       the password (AUTH_PROMPT_VAR2="doggy"), and receives the result of authentication
       ("Success").

           # ./pamd -uj myjur -ll debug -daemon -unsecure -nofork
           pamd[info]: Site config file is "/usr/local/dacs/federations/site.conf"
           pamd[info]: Config file is "/usr/local/dacs/federations/dacs.conf"
           pamd[info]: This is jurisdiction DSS::myjur
           pamd[info]: Secure mode is off
           pamd[debug]: Waiting for initial input block...
           pamd[debug]: No username
           pamd[debug]: Calling pam_authenticate
           pamd[debug]: pamd_conv: reply to port 62475
           pamd[debug]: TRANSID is "10.0.0.124:56372:66664:53983facb39881b2"
           pamd[debug]:   type="text"
           pamd[debug]:   label="Login:"
           pamd[debug]:   varname="AUTH_PROMPT_VAR1"
           pamd[debug]: pamd_conv: waiting 60 seconds for reply
           pamd[debug]: pamd_conv: received connection
           pamd[debug]: Reading reply...
           pamd[debug]: pamd_conv: reply to port 62475
           pamd[debug]: TRANSID is "10.0.0.124:62475:66695:fc855a7d68e8b1eb"
           pamd[debug]:   type="password"
           pamd[debug]:   label="Password:"
           pamd[debug]:   varname="AUTH_PROMPT_VAR2"
           pamd[debug]: pamd_conv: waiting 60 seconds for reply
           pamd[debug]: pamd_conv: received connection
           pamd[debug]: Reading reply...
           pamd[debug]: Success
           pamd[debug]: result="ok"
           pamd[debug]: username="auggie"

           % telnet myjur.example.com 17000
           Trying 10.0.0.124...
           Connected to bsd6.dss.bc.ca.
           Escape character is '^]'.

           Connection closed by foreign host.
           % telnet myjur.example.com 62475
           Trying 10.0.0.124...
           Connected to bsd6.dss.bc.ca.
           Escape character is '^]'.
           TRANSID="10.0.0.124:62475:66695:fc855a7d68e8b1eb"
           AUTH_PROMPT_VAR1="auggie"

           Connection closed by foreign host.
           % telnet myjur.example.com 62475
           Trying 10.0.0.124...
           Connected to bsd6.dss.bc.ca.
           Escape character is '^]'.
           TRANSID="10.0.0.124:62475:66695:fc855a7d68e8b1eb"
           AUTH_PROMPT_VAR2="doggy"

           result="ok"
           username="auggie"
           Connection closed by foreign host.

DIAGNOSTICS

       The program exits 0 if everything was fine, 1 if an error occurred.

BUGS

       The -daemon flag should cause the process to detach and put itself in the background
       unless overridden by another flag; at present it must be started in the background
       "manually".

       The -http flag, which would allow a pamd session to be started with a web service request,
       is not implemented.

SEE ALSO

       dacs_authenticate(8)[13], dacsauth(1)[14], pam(3)[15], X/Open Single Sign-On Service
       (XSSO) preliminary specification[16]

AUTHOR

       Distributed Systems Software (www.dss.ca[17])

COPYING

       Copyright2003-2013 Distributed Systems Software. See the LICENSE[18] file that accompanies
       the distribution for licensing information.

NOTES

        1. dacsoptions
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html#dacsoptions

        2. local_pam_authenticate
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_authenticate.8.html#local_pam_authenticate

        3. inetd(8)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=inetd&apropos=0&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

        4. pam(3)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pam&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

        5. pam.conf(5)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pam.conf&apropos=0&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

        6. pam_start(3)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pam_start&apropos=0&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

        7. PAMD_HOST
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#PAMD_HOST

        8. gethostname(3)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gethostname&apropos=0&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

        9. inetd.conf(5)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=inetd.conf&apropos=0&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

       10. PAMD_PORT
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#PAMD_PORT

       11. services(5)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=services&apropos=0&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

       12. telnet(1)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=telnet&apropos=0&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

       13. dacs_authenticate(8)
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_authenticate.8.html

       14. dacsauth(1)
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacsauth.1.html

       15. pam(3)
           http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pam&apropos=0&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE&format=html

       16. X/Open Single Sign-On Service (XSSO) preliminary specification
           http://www.opengroup.org/pubs/catalog/p702.htm

       17. www.dss.ca
           http://www.dss.ca

       18. LICENSE
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/../misc/LICENSE