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The Answer Guy

By James T. Dennis, answerguy@ssc.com
Starshine Technical Services, http://www.starshine.org/

TACACS and RADIUS Authentication Models for Linux and/or PAM

From Alexander Belov on 01 May 1998

Hello!

I'm looking for TACACS+ client software for Linux. I mean software like portslave (RADIUS) which able to send Authentication-Authorization-Accounting requests to TACACS+ server. Is there such software?

The first place I would look for a TACACS, XTACACS, or TACACS+ deamon is:

http://www.easynet.de/tacacs-faq/tacacs-faq-32.html

It should point to some reasonably portable code. (TACACS is an authentication service supported by Cisco, RADIUS is a similar "remote authentication for dial in user services" or something like that. I've heard of both being supported under Linux. These protocols are principally used by ISP's and by in the remote access systems of large business. They are typically used as a protocol between a terminal server and the hosts to which handle the accounting and authentication for those devices).

Another place I'd look for any Linux authentication services would be:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/modules.html

I see some RADIUS modules there -- but no mention of a TACACS for PAM. I saw a reference to one copy that was working --- but following that URL now leads to a terse message that the PAM modules that used to be there are now "out of date" and that they would re-appear when the author had time to update them. No joy there.

Meanwhile there are a couple of good links to be had from DejaNews (that were either not at Yahoo! or were buried too deep for me to find):

On Steve Frampton's "Linux Administration Made Easy :-p" pages at: http://qlink.queensu.ca/~3srf/linux-admin/ he has a page on Authentication with TACACS (http://qlink.queensu.ca/~3srf/linux-admin/linux-admin-made-easy-6.html)

There he mentions (links) to an ftp site with the "Vikas" version of the xtacacsd. I dug around a bit (guessing HTTP URL's from the given FTP link) and found the:

Netplex Technologies Inc. Home Page

http://www.navya.com/

Thank You Very Much
Alexander Belov

I hope that helps. Somewhere in that morass I'm sure there's a way to get it all working.

Copyright © 1998, James T. Dennis
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 29 June 1998

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