[LCP]Suggestions for authenticating users...

[Jack Lloyd]

On Fri, 21 Jun 2002, Jayson Hay wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am working on a application and would like some suggestions in regards
> to user authentication. I am using C and the application is being
> developed for linux, but it will have some xplatform/windows clients
> built at a later stage.
>
> CRYPT()ed passwords in MySQL is one possibility that I am looking into.
> But what others are worth a look. Any thoughts or suggestions?
>

Things that come to mind:

PAM - not great for an application like this, since the account/password is
tied to the system account/password. But it's flexible.

SSL-based auth (selfsigned x509 certs): works pretty well, and it's not
that hard to do. Also quite portable. And you don't have to rely on
passwords so much.

Using a full database for password storage seems excessive, unless you're
expecting a really large numbers of users. Even though it's less efficient,
a flat file might be something to consider, simply for the ease of
reading/writing.

-Jack