NAME

Apache::AuthenNIS - mod_perl NIS Authentication module

SYNOPSIS

<Directory /foo/bar>
# This is the standard authentication stuff
AuthName "Foo Bar Authentication"
AuthType Basic

PerlAuthenHandler Apache::AuthenNIS

# Set if you want to allow an alternate method of authentication
PerlSetVar AllowAlternateAuth yes | no

# Standard require stuff, NIS users or groups, and
# "valid-user" all work OK
require user username1 username2 ...
require group groupname1 groupname2 ... # [Need Apache::AuthzNIS]
require valid-user

# The following is actually only needed when authorizing
# against NIS groups. This is a separate module.
PerlAuthzHandler Apache::AuthzNIS

</Directory>

These directives can also be used in the <Location> directive or in
an .htaccess file.

= head1 DESCRIPTION

This perl module is designed to work with mod_perl and the Net::NIS module by Rik Haris (rik.harris@fulcrum.com.au). It is a direct adaptation (i.e. I modified the code) of Michael Parker's (parker@austx.tandem.com) Apache::AuthenSmb module.

The module uses Net::NIS::yp_match to retrieve the "passwd" entry from the passwd.byname map, using the supplied username as the search key. It then uses crypt() to verify that the supplied password matches the retrieved hashed password.

= head2 Apache::AuthenNIS vs. Apache::AuthzNIS

I've taken "authentication" to be meaningful only in terms of a user and password combination, not group membership. This means that you can use Apache::AuthenNIS with the require user and require valid-user directives. In the NIS context I consider require group to be an "authorization" concern. I.e., Group authorization consists of establishing whether the already authenticated user is a member of one of the indicated groups in the require group directive. This process may be handled by Apache::AuthzNIS.

I welcome any feedback on this module, esp. code improvements, given that it was written hastily, to say the least.

= head3 Parameters

PerlSetVar AllowAlternateAuth

This attribute allows you to set an alternative method of authentication (Basically, this allows you to mix authentication methods, if you don't have all users in the NIS database). It does this by returning a DECLINE and checking for the next handler, which could be another authentication, such as Apache-AuthenNTLM or basic authentication.

AUTHOR

Demetrios E. Paneras <dep@media.mit.edu> Ported by Shannon Eric Peevey <speeves@unt.edu>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1998 Demetrios E. Paneras, MIT Media Laboratory.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.