Authentication and System Security

A Solstice Network Client user can log in to the Solstice network in much the same way as the user can log in to a UNIX system. The Login program takes the user name and password, encrypts them, and calls the authentication procedure in rpc.pcnfsd on the authentication server. If this procedure succeeds, it returns a user ID and a group ID to be used when constructing the credentials for the user. These credentials are used for subsequent NFS file access. If the user name and password are not found, then authentication fails and the user is denied access.

The authentication server may also return secondary group membership, umask, and home directory information (such as server name and home directory path name).

Solstice NFS Client users who do not log in to the network have no access to the Solstice network.