Question

Validate user-id and password

Asked by: elsamman

Is there any way for a process running as a normal user (e.g. under suexec) to ask the user for an id and password and then validate it.  It seems odd that Apache provides a way to run a script under a user's identity but no way to validate the user.  Of course this must run with shadow passwords enabled or the problem would be trivial.

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Asked On
2004-03-04 at 08:18:50ID20907145
Tags

validate

,

user

,

password

,

id

Topic

Linux Programming

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: jleviePosted on 2004-03-04 at 09:38:20ID: 10515968

There are several ways to do this without access to the shadow file. One common way, if the server is running a POP or IMAP server is to attempt to authenticate to POP or IMAP. The same sort of thing can be done against an FTP or other server.

 

by: elsammanPosted on 2004-03-04 at 14:35:54ID: 10518482

Thanks jlevie.

I had actually been authenticating against a mySQL database.  I no longer need the mySQL database in the CGI script as I will now be using a daemon to do the work.  I could use FTP or POP but was hoping for something with a little less overhead as I do it on each CGI call.  Do you think FTP is faster than POP for authentication?

Can you confirm that there is absolutely no way to do this with a Linux API.

If I don't find an efficient solution I will pass the ID/Password down the pipe to the daemon to validate against the shadow file but I worry about passing this sort of thing down a named pipe in that someone might spoof a pipe on me and capture IDs and passwords.  I suppose I can carefully control the access so that everyone can write but only root can read the pipe.

 

by: jleviePosted on 2004-03-04 at 17:41:15ID: 10519263

>  but was hoping for something with a little less overhead as I do it on each CGI call

By that do you mean you check the authentication for each page of a given user's session? A more efficient method is to set a cookie on the first "login" page and then check that for subsequent pages. Or, when using PHP, to create a session at login.

I'm not sure which would be faster, POP or FTP, but I'd guess that it would be POP. Note that if your web pages that pass the username and password aren't being served by a secure server (HTTPS) the username & password is being passed in plain text over the wire and thus are exposed to sniffers. If you aren't using a secure server there's no additional risk of using a named pipe for the daemon.

 

by: akshayxxPosted on 2004-03-04 at 21:15:40ID: 10520227

following two links discuss the validation of user-id/password with shadow support.
also u'll find some working sample codes.

http://www.fifi.org/doc/HOWTO/en-html/Shadow-Password-HOWTO-8.html
http://www.erlenstar.demon.co.uk/unix/faq_5.html
hope this is of some help
akshay

 

by: akshayxxPosted on 2004-03-04 at 21:18:53ID: 10520242

u may also want to explore kerberos OR PAM(pluggable authentication module) for the purpose..
akshay

 

by: elsammanPosted on 2004-03-05 at 05:02:33ID: 10522049

While no one has come out and said it I take it that there is no Unix API to validate a user-id and password.  FTP/POP sounds like the only game in town for running as a normal user.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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