what is gssapi good for ( was: SSH problem )

[Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh]

Amos Shapira wrote:
> 2010/1/28 Michael Ben-Nes <miki at epoch.co.il>:
>   
>> Hi,
>> What is gssapi good for?
>> Read about it in wikipedia but I am not aware of apps that use it.
>> Basically I disable it in new servers to get faster response.
>>     
>
> I'm curios too. Couldn't find any use for it and also disable it as
> part of our SOE.
>
> Anyone?
>
> --Amos
>
>   

GSSAPI is part of Kerberos suit. It is useful for
"single-authentication systems". E.G. you log into your
own workstation or terminal once, and then you are authenticated
to log into all systems within Kerberos realm without being
prompted for password.
ActiveDirectory, in particular, uses modified version of
Kerberos protocols. I never tried it myself, but I guess
it'd be possible to let people with accounts in active directory
have access to systems with SSH server without having to reauthenticate.



-- 
Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh
http://www.total-knowledge.com