subauth - A client to the sub-authentication service
subauth options operation
The sub-authentication service lets local users define sub-accounts
with different authentication tokens for specific services.
The system administrator defines one or more authentication zones,
each corresponding to a set of system services. You can use subauth --zones
to list all existing zones.
Each zone can contain an account for each system user. Depending on the
configuration of the zone, accounts can be manager manually by the administrator,
or they can be created automatically when the user sets an authentication
token for the zone.
Every account can be endowed with one of more authentication tokens
of the following types. Depending on the configuration, all types need
not be available in all zones.
-
Password: a user-specified string, usually easy to remember, but hard to
guess. This is useful when authenticating manually. Please note that the
password must not contain a "
-" (minus) character, because it is used
as a separator in other token types. There may be at most one password
per account. You can use subauth --passwd to set a password
and subauth --delete-passwd to remove it.
-
Regular token: such tokens are generated automatically. They consist
of a public identifier (4 hexadecimal digits) and a random secret string.
Multiple tokens can be defined for the same account, their public identifiers
and optional comments can be listed by the user. This can be useful if you
want to let multiple programs remember your credentials: each program can
get a unique token and when it ceases to be trusted, the token can be simply
removed. Use subauth --create-token to have a token generated and subauth --delete-token
to have it removed.
-
Temporary token: this is a randomly generated cryptographically signed string,
allowing access to the given user in the given zone for a limited time. Temporary tokens
can be useful for services which are used so scarcely that it does not make
sense to remember permanent credentials of any kind. Use subauth --temp-token
to obtain a temporary token. You can set how long will the token be valid
up to a limit configured by the administrator for the given zone.
The sub-accounts are managed by the subauthd(8) daemon.
The subauth(1) command is a front-end to this daemon, through which
accounts and tokens can be managed from the shell.
User commands
-
--zones
-
List all known authentication zones.
-
-l, --list
-
List all accounts of the current user (this can be the user running the
command, or a different user given as --user if ran by the super-user).
-
--passwd
-
Set or replace a password for the given account. Requires --zone.
-
--delete-passwd
-
Delete password for the given account. Requires --zone.
-
--create-token
-
Create a new token for the given account. Requires --zone.
Optionally, a --comment can be given.
-
--delete-token
-
Delete a given token. Requires --zone and --ident.
-
--change-token
-
Change parameters of an existing token. Currently, only the comment
can be changed; setting to an empty string removes the comment.
Requires --zone and --ident.
-
--temp-token
-
Create a temporary token. Requires --zone.
Optionally, token validity can be set with --expire (otherwise,
a default of 5 minutes will be used).
-
--login
-
Test if a given password or token (read from standard input) is valid
in the given zone. Requires --zone. Optionally, you can specify a --user
to test somebody else’s credentials.
Administrator commands
-
--create-acct
-
Create an account for the current user in the given zone. Requires --zone
and --user.
-
--delete-acct
-
Delete an account for the current user in the given zone. Requires --zone
and --user.
-
--delete-user
-
Deletes all accounts of the current user. Requires --user.
-
-u, --user=login
-
Operate on the given user instead of the user running the command.
Only the super-user can operate on somebody else.
-
-z, --zone=zone
-
Specify authentication zone. This is required by most operations.
-
-i, --ident=id
-
Specify token identifier. An asterisk can be used for "all tokens".
-
-c, --comment=text
-
When creating a token, remember this comment with the token. Comments
make it easier to recognize the intentions behind different tokens.
-
-x, --expire=time
-
Set lifetime of a temporary token. The time is followed by a unit,
which is either "h", "m", or "s". Maximum lifetime can be limited
by zone configuration.
-
--socket=path
-
Communicate with the subauth daemon through the given socket instead
of the default one.
-
--debug
-
For wizards: Dump raw communication with the daemon.