Using Other Context Services in GSS-API

The gss_init_sec_context() function enables an application to request additional data protection services beyond basic context establishment. These services are requested through the req_flags argument to gss_init_sec_context().

Not all mechanisms offer all these services. The ret_flags argument for gss_init_sec_context() indicates which services are available in a given context. Similarly, the context acceptor examines the ret_flags value that is returned by gss_accept_sec_context() to determine the available services. The additional services are explained in the following sections.