Interprocess Tokens

The GSS-API permits a security context to be passed from one process to another in a multiprocess application. Typically, this application has accepted a client's context and wants to share it among its processes. See Context Export and Import for information on multiprocess applications.

The gss_export_context() function creates an interprocess token that contains information allowing the context to be reconstituted by a second process. It is the responsibility of the application to pass this interprocess token from one process to the other, just as it is the application's responsibility to pass tokens to other applications.

Since this interprocess token might contain keys or other sensitive information, and since it cannot be guaranteed that all GSS-API implementations will cryptographically protect interprocess tokens, it is up to the application to protect them before exchange. This may involve encrypting them with gss_wrap(), if encryption is available.

Interprocess tokens cannot be assumed to be transferable across different GSS-API implementations.