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Edit File: mod_auth_unix.html

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<title>ProFTPD module mod_auth_unix</title>
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<h2>ProFTPD module <code>mod_auth_unix</code></h2>
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This module is contained in the <code>mod_auth_unix.c</code> file for
ProFTPD 1.3.x, and is compiled by default.

<h2>Directives</h2>
<ul>
 <li><a href="#AuthUnixOptions">AuthUnixOptions</a>
 <li><a href="#PersistentPasswd">PersistentPasswd</a>
</ul>

<hr>
<h2><a name="AuthUnixOptions">AuthUnixOptions</a></h2>
Syntax: AuthUnixOptions opt1 ... 
Default: None 
Context: server config, <code>&lt;VirtualHost&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;Global&gt;</code> 
Module: mod_auth_unix 
Compatibility: 1.3.3rc2

The <code>AuthUnixOptions</code> directive is used to tweak various
Unix-specific authentication behaviors in <code>mod_auth_unix</code>. The
currently implemented options are:
<ul>
 <li><code>aixNoRLogin</code> 
 
 In <a href="http://bugs.proftpd.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1896">Bug#1896</a>,
 support for checking some AIX-specific functions for whether a login
 should be accepted was added; this happens only on AIX servers, of course.

However, some AIX admins like to configure "rlogin=false", yet still want
 to allow FTP logins. To enable this specific behavior, a new
 <code>AuthUnixOptions</code> setting (only honored on AIX) was added:
<pre>
 AuthUnixOptions aixNoRLogin
</pre>
 If this setting is used on any other server, it is silently ignored.
 <a href="http://bugs.proftpd.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3300">Bug#3300</a> has
 the full details.
 </li>

<li><code>magicTokenChroot</code> 
 
 This option causes <code>mod_auth_unix</code> to examine the home
 directory retrieved for a user for the magic "/./" token. If found,
 the portion of the directory before the token will be used for the
 <code>chroot()</code> for the process; the portion after the token
 will be the default directory for the process.

Note that this will override any configured <code>DefaultRoot</code>
 and <code>DefaultChdir</code> directives.

This option is intended for use for sites which are migrating from
 old <code>wuftpd</code>-based installations.
 </li>

<li><code>noGetgrouplist</code> 
 
 On systems which support it, the <code>getgrouplist(3)</code> function
 can be used to get the group membership list of a user in a much
 faster way. However, use of this function can have strange interactions
 with NSS modules, depending on the NSS modules used (see
 <a href="http://bugs.proftpd.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3475">Bug#3475</a>).
 Use this option to disable use of the <code>getgrouplist(3)</code>
 function, e.g.:
<pre>
 AuthUnixOptions noGetgrouplist
</pre>
 This setting has no effect on systems which do not support the
 <code>getgrouplist(3)</code> function.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="PersistentPasswd">PersistentPasswd</a></h2>
Syntax: PersistentPasswd on|off 
Default: off 
Context: server config, <code>&lt;VirtualHost&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;Global&gt;</code> 
Module: mod_auth_unix 
Compatibility: 1.2.0

The <code>PersistentPasswd</code> directive controls how
<code>mod_auth_unix</code> handles authentication, user/group lookups, and
user/group to name mapping. If set to on, <code>mod_auth_unix</code>
will attempt to open the system-wide <code>/etc/passwd</code>,
<code>/etc/group</code> (and potentially <code>/etc/shadow</code>) files
itself, holding them open even during a <code>chroot()</code>ed login. (Note
that <code>/etc/shadow</code> is never held open, for security reasons).

On some platforms, you must turn this option on, as the libc functions
are incapable of accessing these databases from inside of a
<code>chroot()</code>.

Note: <code>NIS</code>/<code>NIS+</code> and <code>NSS</code> users will most
likely want to disable this feature. Failure to disable this will make your
<code>NIS</code>/<code>NIS+</code> maps and <code>NSS</code> lookups not work!
On certain systems, you may also need to use the
<code>--enable-autoshadow</code> option in order to authenticate both users
from <code>NIS</code> maps or <code>NSS</code> lookups, and local users.

<hr>
<h2><a name="Installation">Installation</a></h2>
The <code>mod_auth_unix</code> module is compiled by default.

<a name="FAQ">
Frequently Asked Questions

<a name="Password8Characters">
Question: I found that only the first 8 characters of
passwords are used! This is a security bug! 
Answer: No, it is not.

The default Unix password hashing scheme uses the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard">Data Encryption Standard</a> (DES) algorithm.
As per the <code>crypt(3)</code> man page, only the first 8 characters
of the password are used. Thus this 8 character limitation comes from
the underlying system authentication, not from proftpd. The whole
purpose of the PAM system was to enable replacing the use of DES with other
authentication algorithms, which do not have this 8 character limitation.

Later, other <code>crypt(3)</code> implementations were made which can also
support algorithms such as MD5, or Blowfish. Some platforms support these
enhanced versions of <code>crypt(3)</code>, some do not.

<a name="ExpiredPasswords">
Question: It appears that the handling of expired
passwords by <code>mod_auth_unix</code> is wrong. Is this a bug? 
Answer: Not really. Different implementations
have implemented expired passwords differently. One particular implementation
even has special values, e.g. for the date of last password change:
<blockquote>
 The value 0 has a special meaning, which is that the user should
 change her pasword the next time she will log in the system.
</blockquote>

These special cases vary from implementation to implementation; in the end,
it is better to use the
<a href="mod_auth_pam.html"><code>mod_auth_pam</code></a> module and a PAM
configuration which can better handle password expiration according to your
site's needs.

<a name="CachedUsers">
Question: I've added new user to my system (i.e.
in the <code>/etc/passwd</code> file), but my <code>proftpd</code> does not
see the new user until I have restarted it. Is there any way to not have
to restart <code>proftpd</code>, to disable its caching of system users? 
Answer: ProFTPD is not caching system users, per se.
Instead, this behavior is a side-effect of the
<a href="#PersistentPasswd"><code>PersistentPasswd</code></a> setting. Check
to see if you have:
<pre>
 PersistentPasswd on
</pre>
in your <code>proftpd.conf</code>. If you do (or if you do not have
<code>PersistentPasswd</code> in your config at all), then change your
<code>proftpd.conf</code> to have:
<pre>
 PersistentPasswd off
</pre>

Why is this necessary? When you use <code>PersistentPasswd on</code>,
then <code>proftpd</code> will open a file descriptor on the system
<code>/etc/passwd</code> file during server startup. This descriptor is kept
open during the lifetime of the daemon. Later, when you add a new user to the
system <code>/etc/passwd</code> file, the system tools create a new version of
that file, then rename the new file to have the <code>/etc/passwd</code> name.
But <code>proftpd</code> still has a descriptor to the old file, and
does not see/know that the file has changed. That is why it can look like
<code>proftpd</code> is "caching" your system users.

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Author: $Author: castaglia $ 
Last Updated: $Date: 2013-09-29 23:28:02 $

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