Kerberos

Introduction to Kerberos

Kerberos provides a toolkit for reducing the risks associated with insecure networks. It provides a unified password space in which we can manage strong passwords easily and it can prevent your password from being sent across the network as cleartext.

Working with Kerberos

When you successfully log into any of our kerberos authenticated systems, you will be granted a set of credentials which will identify you to other network resources. Most users can take advantage of Kerberos without any detailed knowlege about the system.

The only significant complication for some users is that credentials expire after one week at UMIACS. In some environments, the lack of credentials can cause the user environment to behave erratically as network resources become unavailable.

Whenever possible, we strongly suggest that users log out of their environments nightly.

Managing your Kerberos Account

You can change your password via visting this link,

https://intranet.umiacs.umd.edu/cgi-bin/changepass

Administrative information associated with your account by this link,

https://intranet.umiacs.umd.edu/chinfo

Listing your credentials

It is often useful to examine your current credentials. Using `klist`, you can verify that your login is correct ,

 [derek@kiwi ~]$ klist
 Ticket cache: FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_2174_dcDWCg
 Default principal: derek@UMIACS.UMD.EDU
 
 Valid starting     Expires            Service principal
 05/28/08 11:39:36  05/29/08 11:39:36  krbtgt/UMIACS.UMD.EDU@UMIACS.UMD.EDU
 
 
 Kerberos 4 ticket cache: /tmp/tkt2174
 klist: You have no tickets cached

'Default principal' indicates the kerberos identity of the current process. In this case, the kerberos pricipal, 'derek@UMIACS.UMD.EDU' indicates that I am authenticated as the user 'derek' to the realm 'UMIACS.UMD.EDU'.

If my credentials have not been set up correctly, klist will report:

 [derek@kiwi ~]$ klist
 klist: No credentials cache found (ticket cache FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_2174_dcDWCg)
 
 
 Kerberos 4 ticket cache: /tmp/tkt2174
 klist: You have no tickets cached

Reinitialize your Credentials

When available, use `kinit -R` to refresh your current credentials.

Single Sign On Services

Kerberos authenticated Pop and IMAP provide secure and convenient methods reading mail. Unlike traditional POP3 and IMAP services, your password is never sent over the network as cleartext and your password is not cached on a client.

The Distributed File System (DFS) is a kerberos authenticated network file system and only processes with your kerberos credentials can access your files. In many cases, even a super-user account cannot compromise the security of your files without first compromising your password.

We are actively working to use kerberos authentication with the OpenSSH package to provide single sign-on services for SSH, SCP, SFTP, and FTP so that users can login to remote systems, execute remote commands, and transfer files without typing your password or managing authentication tokens like .shosts files or key pairs.

Password Security

Kerberos security depends on the security of your password. Although Kerberos can make secure access to services convenient, it is still your responsibility to secure your password. Please try to choose a strong password and use secure protocols.

Long Running Processes in a Kerberos Environment

Please see Managing Long Running Processes in a Kerberos Environment