Creating Credential Information for the Administrator

When a namespace is first set up, credential information is created first for the administrators who will support the domain. Once they have credential information, they can create credential information for other administrators, client machines, and client users.

When you try to create your own credential information, you run into a problem of circularity: you cannot create your own credential information unless you have Create rights to your domain's cred table, but if the NIS+ environment is properly set up, you cannot have such rights until you have credentials. You have to step out of the loop somehow. You can do this in one of two ways:

• By creating your credential information while logged in as superuser to your domain's master server.

• By having another administrator create your credential information using a dummy password, then changing your password with the chkey command.

In either case, your credential information is thus created by another NIS+ principal. To create your own credential information, follow the instructions in "Creating Credential Information for NIS+ Principals".

Creating Credential Information for NIS+ Principals

Credential information for NIS+ principals can be created any time after their domain has been set up; in other words, once a cred table exists.

To create credential information for an NIS+ principal:

• You must have Create rights to the cred table of the principal's home domain.

• The principal must be recognized by the server. This means that:

  • If the principal is a user, the principal must have an entry either in the domain's NIS+ passwd table or in the server's /etc/passwd file.

  • If the principal is a machine, it must have an entry either in the domain's NIS+ Hosts table or in the server's

Once those conditions are met, you can use the nisaddcred command with both the -p and -P options:

For LOCAL credentials

nisaddcred -p uid -P principal-name local

For DES credentials

nisaddcred -p rpc.netname -P principal-name des

Remember these principles:

• You can create both LOCAL and DES credential information for a principal user.

• You can only create DES credential information for a principal machine.

• You can create DES credential information only in the principal's home domain (user or machine).

• You can create LOCAL credential information for a user in both the user's home domain and in other domains.

For User Principals--Example

This example creates both LOCAL and DES credential information for an NIS+ user named morena who has a UID of 11177. She belongs to the doc.com. domain, so this example enters her credential information from a principal machine of that domain:

client# nisaddcred -p 11177 -P morena.doc.com. local 
client# nisaddcred -p unix.11177@sales.doc.com \
   -P morena.doc.com. des
Adding key pair for unix.11177@sales.doc.com 
   (morena.doc.com.).
Enter login password:

The proper response to the Enter login password: prompt is morena's login password. (If you don't know her login password, you can use a dummy password that she can later change using chkey, as described in the next example.)

Using a Dummy Password and chkey--Example

If you don't know the user's login password, you can use a dummy password as described below.

Table 12-5, shows how another administrator, whose credential information you create using a dummy password, can then use chkey to change his or her own password. In this example, you create credential information for an administrator named Eiji who has a UID of 119. Eiji, whose login ID is eiji, belongs to the root domain, so you would enter his credential information from the root master server which is named rootmaster.

Table 12-5 Creating Administrator Credentials: Command Summary

Retype password:
Done.

First, you would create Eiji's credential information in the usual way, but using a dummy login password. NIS+ would warn you and ask you to re-type it. When you did, the operation would be complete. The domain's cred table would contain Eiji's credential information based on the dummy password. The domain's passwd table (or /etc/passwd file), however, would still have his login password entry so that he can log on to the system.

Then, Eiji would log in to the domain's master server, typing his correct login password (since the login procedure checks the password entry in the passwd table or /etc/passwd file). From there, Eiji would first run keylogin, using the dummy password (since a keylogin checks the cred table), and then use the chkey -p command to change the cred entry to the real thing.

Creating in Another Domain--Example

The two previous examples created credential information for a principal user while the principal user was logged in to the master server of the principal's home domain. However, if you have the proper access rights, you can create credential information in another domain. Simply append the domain name to this syntax:

For LOCAL credentials

nisaddcred -p uid -P principal-name local domain-name

For DES credentials

nisaddcred -p rpc-netname -P principal-name des domain-name 

The following example first creates LOCAL and DES credential information for an administrator named Chou in her home domain, which happens to be the root domain, then adds her LOCAL credential information to the doc.com domain. Chou's UID is 11155. This command is typed on from the root master server. For simplicity, it assumes you are entering Chou's correct login password.

rmaster# nisaddcred -p 11155 -P chou.doc.com. local
rmaster# nisaddcred -p unix.11155@doc.com -P chou.doc.com. des
Adding key pair for unix.11155@doc.com (chou.doc.com.).
Enter login password: 
rootmaster# nisaddcred -p 11155 -P chou.doc.com. local doc.com.

LOCAL credential information maps a UID to an NIS+ principal name. Although an NIS+ principal that is a client user can have different user IDs in different domains, it can have only one NIS+ principal name. So, if an NIS+ principal such as chou will be logging in from a domain other than her home domain, not only should she have a password entry in that domain, but also a LOCAL credential in that domain's cred table.