Desenvolvimento de um módulo pam para autenticação criptografada e distribuída em estações linux

Abstract

The purpose of this work is the development of a PAM (Plugable Authentication Modules) module for cryptographic, distruibuted and easy to manage authentication on Linux stations. With this module it will also be possible to change users’ passwords. Normally the authentication of a user is made by a comparison between a password provided by her and a password located in a file on the local machine. Nowadays, at most of Linux systems, PAM takes care of this process. In a network environment, especially a local network, where it is desired that all networks users be able to log in any machine, it is usefull that the authentication process be centralized, that is, the password file should stay in just one machine, a server, for example. Implementations that provide this already exist, but none is safe and specific for this purpose. To make the remote authentication process easy, a PAM module will be developed so that the many Linux applications that need to authenticate users (and use PAMto do it), will be able to authenticate remotely and safely without any modifications.