path: root/usr/src/man/man5/krb5envvar.5

'\" te
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.TH KRB5ENVVAR 5 "Feb 13, 2008"
.SH NAME
krb5envvar \- Kerberos environment variables
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The Kerberos mechanism provides a number of environment variables to configure
different behavior in order to meet applications' needs. Environment variables
used within the Kerberos mechanism are:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBKRB5_KTNAME\fR\fR
.ad
.sp .6
.RS 4n
Used by the mechanism to specify the location of the key table file. The
variable can be set to the following value:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
[[\fI<kt type>\fR:]\fI<file name>\fR]
.fi
.in -2

where \fI<kt type>\fR can be \fBFILE\fR or \fBWRFILE\fR. \fBFILE\fR is for read
operations; \fBWRFILE\fR is for write operations. \fI<file name>\fR is the
location of the \fBkeytab\fR file.
.sp
r
.sp
If \fBKRB5_KTNAME\fR is not defined, the default value is:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
FILE:/etc/krb5/krb5.keytab
.fi
.in -2

The \fBkeytab\fR file is used to store credentials persistently and is used
commonly for service daemons.
.sp
Specifying the \fBFILE\fR type assumes that the subsequent operations on the
associated file are readable by the invoking process. Care must be taken to
ensure that the file is readable only by the set of principals that need to
retrieve their unencrypted keys.
.sp
The \fBWRFILE\fR type is used by the \fBkadmin\fR(1M) command. Specifying this
type allows the administrator to designate an alternate \fBkeytab\fR file to
write to without using extra command line arguments for file location.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBKRB5CCNAME\fR\fR
.ad
.sp .6
.RS 4n
Used by the mechanism to specify the location of the credential cache. The
variable can be set to the following value:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
[[\fI<cc type>\fR:]\fI<file name>\fR]
.fi
.in -2

where \fI<cc type>\fR can be \fBFILE\fR or \fBMEMORY\fR. \fI<file name>\fR is
the location of the principal's credential cache.
.sp
If \fBKRB5CCNAME\fR is not defined, the default value is:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_\fI<uid>\fR
.fi
.in -2

where \fI<uid>\fR is the user id of the process that created the cache file.
.sp
The credential cache file is used to store tickets that have been granted to
the principal.
.sp
Specifying the \fBFILE\fR types assumes that subsequent operations on the
associated file are readable and writable by the invoking process. Care must be
taken to ensure that the file is accessible only by the set of principals that
need to access their credentials. If the credential file is in a directory to
which other users have write access, you need to set that directory's sticky
bit (see \fBchmod\fR(1)).
.sp
The \fBMEMORY\fR credential cache type is used only in special cases, such as
when making a temporary cache for the life of the invoking process.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fBKRB5RCNAME\fR\fR
.ad
.sp .6
.RS 4n
Used by the mechanism to specify the type and location of the replay cache. The
variable can be set to the following value:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
[[\fI<rc type>\fR:]\fI<file name>\fR]
.fi
.in -2

where \fI<rc type>\fR can be either \fBFILE\fR, \fBMEMORY\fR, or \fBNONE\fR.
\fI<file name>\fR is relevant only when specifying the replay cache file type.
.sp
If not defined, the default value is:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
FILE:/var/krb5/rcache/root/rc_\fI<service>\fR
.fi
.in -2

\&...if the process is owned by root, or:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
FILE:/var/krb5/rcache/rc_\fI<service>\fR
.fi
.in -2

\&...if the process is owned by a user other than root. \fI<service>\fR is the
service process name associated with the replay cache file.
.sp
The replay cache is used by Kerberos to detect the replay of authentication
data. This prevents people who capture authentication messages on the network
from authenticating to the server by resending these messages.
.sp
When specifying the \fBFILE\fR replay cache type, care must be taken to prevent
the replay cache file from being deleted by another user. Make sure that every
directory in the replay cache path is either writable only by the owner of the
replay cache or that the sticky bit ("\fBt\fR") is set on every directory in
the replay cache path to which others have write permission.
.sp
When specifying the \fBMEMORY\fR replay cache type you need to weigh the
trade-off of performance against the slight security risk created by using a
non-persistent cache. The risk occurs during system reboots when the following
condition obtains:
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
The duration from the last write to the replay cache before reboot to the point
when the Kerberized server applications are running is less than the Kerberos
clockskew (see \fBkrb5.conf\fR(4)).
.RE
When specifying the \fBNONE\fR replay cache time you need to understand that
this disables the replay cache, and all security risks that this presents. This
includes all the risks outlined in this section of the man page.
.sp
Under this condition, the server applications can accept a replay of Kerberos
authentication data (up to the difference between the time of the last write
and the clockskew). Typically, this is a small window of time. If the server
applications take longer than the clockskew to start accepting connections
there is no replay risk.
.sp
The risk described above is the same when using \fBFILE\fR replay cache types
when the replay cache resides on swap file systems, such as \fB/tmp\fR and
\fB/var/run\fR.
.sp
The performance improvement in \fBMEMORY\fR replay cache types over \fBFILE\fR
types is derived from the absence of disk I/O. This is true even if the
\fBFILE\fR replay cache is on a memory-backed file system, such as swap
(\fB/tmp\fR and \fB/var/run\fR).
.sp
Note that \fBMEMORY\fR-type caches are per-process caches,  therefore use of
these types of caches must be carefully considered. One  example of where
\fBMEMORY\fR-type caches can be problematic  is when an application uses  more
than one process for establishing security contexts. In such a case, memory
replay caches are not shared across the processes, thus  allowing potential for
replay attacks.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fBKRB5_CONFIG\fR
.ad
.sp .6
.RS 4n
Allows you to change the default location of the \fB/etc/krb5/krb5.conf\fR file
to enable the Kerberos library code to read configuration parameters from
another file specified by KRB5_CONFIG. For example (using kinit from
\fBksh\fR(1)):
.sp
.in +2
.nf
 KRB5_CONFIG=/var/tmp/krb5.conf kinit
.fi
.in -2

.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for a description of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Interface Stability	Uncommitted
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBchmod\fR(1), \fBkinit\fR(1), \fBklist\fR(1), \fBksh\fR(1), \fBkadmin\fR(1M),
\fBkadmind\fR(1M), \fBkrb5.conf\fR(4), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBkerberos\fR(5)