NIS+ cred Table in Detail - System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (NIS+)

Credential information for principals is stored in a cred table. The cred table is one of the 16 standard NIS+ tables. Each domain has one cred table, which stores the credential information of client machines that belong to that domain and client users who are allowed to log into them. (In other words, the principals of that domain.) The cred tables are located in their domains' org_dir subdirectory.

Caution - Never link a cred table. Each org_dir directory must have its own cred table. Never use a link to some other org_dir cred table.

For users, the cred table stores LOCAL credential information for all users who are allowed to log into any of the machines in the domain. The cred table also stores DES credential information for those users that have the domain as their home domain.

You can view the contents of a cred table with the niscat command, described in Chapter 19, Administering NIS+ Tables.

The cred table, as shown in Table 12-3, has five columns.

Table 12-3 NIS+ cred Table Credential Information

	NIS+ Principal Name	Authentication Type	Authentication Name	Public Data	Private Data
Column Name	cname	auth_type	auth_name	public_data	private_data
User	Fully qualified principal name	LOCAL	UID	GID list
Machine	Fully qualified principal name	DES	Secure RPC netname	Public key	Encrypted Private key

The Authentication Type column, determines the types of values found in the other four columns.

LOCAL. If the authentication type is LOCAL, the other columns contain a principal user's name, UID, and GID; the last column is empty.
DES. If the authentication type is DES, the other columns contain a principal's name, Secure RPC netname, public key, and encrypted private key. These keys are used in conjunction with other information to encrypt and decrypt a DES credential.

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	System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (NIS+)