SEAM Components

Like the MIT distribution of Kerberos V5, SEAM includes:

• Key Distribution Center (KDC) (master):

  • Kerberos database administration daemon -- kadmind

  • Kerberos ticket processing daemon -- krb5kdc

• Slave KDCs

• Database administration programs -- kadmin and kadmin.local

• Database propagation software -- kprop

• User programs for obtaining, viewing, and destroying tickets -- kinit, klist, kdestroy -- and for changing your SEAM password -- kpasswd

• Applications -- ftp, rcp, rlogin, rsh, and telnet -- and daemons for these applications -- ftpd, rlogind, rshd and telnetd

• Administration utilities -- ktutil, kdb5_util

• Several libraries

In addition, the SEAM product includes the following:

• SEAM Administration Tool (gkadmin) -- Allows you to administer the KDC. This Java(TM)-based GUI allows an administrator to perform the tasks usually performed through the kadmin command.

• The Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) -- Allows applications to use various authentication mechanisms; PAM can be used to make login and logouts transparent to the user.

• A utility (gsscred) and a daemon (gssd) -- These programs help map UNIX^TM UIDs to principal names; needed because SEAM NFS servers use UNIX IDs to identify users and not principal names, which are stored in a different format altogether.

• GSS_API framework -- The Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface (GSS-API) allows applications to use multiple security mechanisms without having to recompile the application every time a new mechanism is added. Because GSS-API is machine-independent, it is appropriate for applications on the Internet. GSS-API provides applications with the ability to include the integrity and privacy security services, as well as authentication.

• The RPCSEC_GSS Application Programming Interface (API) -- Allows NFS services to use Kerberos authentication. RPCSEC_GSS is a new security flavor that provides security services that are independent of the mechanisms being used; RPCSEC_GSS sits "on top" of the GSS-API layer. Any pluggable GSS_API-based security mechanism can be used by applications using RPCSEC_GSS.

• A preconfiguration procedure -- Allows you to set the parameters for installing and configuring SEAM, making SEAM installation automatic; especially useful for multiple installations.

• Kernel modifications -- Allow faster performance.