Very Computer

by **Benjamin Z. Goldste** » Tue, 21 May 1996 04:00:00

Hello,
I would like to start sharing the password file among a group of SGI's.
Problem: NIS is just too insecure. Are there any reasonable alternatives?

Thanks
--
Benjamin Z. Golds*

by **Nathan C. Burne** » Wed, 22 May 1996 04:00:00

: Hello,
: I would like to start sharing the password file among a group of SGI's.
: Problem: NIS is just too insecure. Are there any reasonable alternatives?
:

NIS+ is supposed to be at least a little bit more secure. My site uses
NeXTstep's Netinfo extensivly. But it's hard to find non-NeXT netinfo
software. If you've got a NeXT laying around though it might be worth
looking into.

Nate

--
---
Nathan C. Burnett "Always in motion is the future"

http://chestnut.enmu.edu/~burnettn Yoda

The Wings will have the Cup in '96!!!

by **Elliot Le** » Wed, 22 May 1996 04:00:00

Quote:> Hello,
> I would like to start sharing the password file among a group of SGI's.
> Problem: NIS is just too insecure. Are there any reasonable alternatives?

Some places use rdist to distribute the password file. While rdist has
had some security problems, and it does require setting root's .rhosts
file, it should be no problem if you use TCP Wrappers to limit access to
the rlogin/rshell services (which are used to start up the rdist daemon
on demand).

\\\| Elliot Lee |\\\ || Claim to fame:
\\\| Red Hat Software |\\\ || "Geek of the Week" for three years
\\\| Webmaster www.redhat.com, |\\\ || running.
\\\| Programmer, etc. |\\\ ||

by **Chris Wal** » Wed, 22 May 1996 04:00:00

>> Hello,
>> I would like to start sharing the password file among a group of SGI's.
>> Problem: NIS is just too insecure. Are there any reasonable alternatives?

>Some places use rdist to distribute the password file. While rdist has
>had some security problems, and it does require setting root's .rhosts
>file, it should be no problem if you use TCP Wrappers to limit access to
>the rlogin/rshell services (which are used to start up the rdist daemon
>on demand).

You might also investigate "spm". From the README:

INTRODUCTION

The System for Password Management (SPM, pronounced "spam") is a
replacement for passwd, yppasswd, chsh, ypchsh, chfn, ypchfn and
rpc.yppasswdd. It allows a user to change his/her password, login
shell, and GECOS.

Please read the paper "SPM: System for Password Management"
(ftp://usc.edu/pub/spm/paper/spm-lisa95.ps) for a more detailed
description.

FEATURES

The following is a list of features provided by SPM that are not normally
found in most UNIX implementations:

- Consistant user interface across heterogeneous OSs and password facilities
(i.e. /etc files, YP/NIS).

[...]

--

ECE Dept., Northwestern Univ. for PGP 2.6.2 public key
Evanston, IL
http://web.ece.nwu.edu/~mack23/

by **Larry Gla** » Wed, 22 May 1996 04:00:00

>>> Hello,
>>> I would like to start sharing the password file among a group of SGI's.
>>> Problem: NIS is just too insecure. Are there any reasonable alternatives?

>You might also investigate "spm". From the README:

> INTRODUCTION

>The System for Password Management (SPM, pronounced "spam") is a
>replacement for passwd, yppasswd, chsh, ypchsh, chfn, ypchfn and
>rpc.yppasswdd. It allows a user to change his/her password, login
>shell, and GECOS.

>Please read the paper "SPM: System for Password Management"
>(ftp://usc.edu/pub/spm/paper/spm-lisa95.ps) for a more detailed
>description.

Has anyone gotten this to work though? I have it compiled but I can't get
the thing configured to allow connections to spmd from multiple machines.
It works fine as long as only one machine is listed. I couldn't find any
docs/examples on how to define a net (which will also work for us) and
the author of the package didn't give me any examples either. If anyone
has gotten this to work for multiple machines then I would greatly
appreciate any help you could give.

The server is residing on a SunOS 4.1.3 machine and the clients are SGI IRIX.

Larry
--
Larry Glaze | "...Life's a bummer..."
System Administrator | --Smashing Pumpkins
The Ohio State University | All opinions are my own

Very Computer

Alternatives to NIS (just pasword sharing)

Alternatives to NIS (just pasword sharing)

Alternatives to NIS (just pasword sharing)

Alternatives to NIS (just pasword sharing)

Alternatives to NIS (just pasword sharing)

Alternatives to NIS (just pasword sharing)