Q: 2.5.2p2, RSA auth and expired passwords

[Nicolas Williams]

On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 02:38:49PM -0700, John Hardin wrote:
> Nicolas Williams wrote:
> > 
> > If you were using Kerberos V password validation, how could you check
> > if the user's password is expired without having access to the user's
> > password? If the user requires pre-authentication, then you can't.
> > 
> > On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 02:08:38PM -0700, John Hardin wrote:
> > > Quick question:
> > >
> > > ssh client and server 2.5.2p2, RSA authentication. Should the user be
> > > prompted to change their password if it's expired?
> 
> That's just it, we're using only plain-vanilla RSA1 authentication. 
> Should it even be checking to see whether the password has expired?

"Plain-vanilla RSA1 authentication" means no password is involved. The
user may have a password, and you might like to check wether or not it's
expired, but, as I pointed out, there are some password validation
technologies where this check cannot be done without actually having the
password -- and having that password available means you're not doing
"plain-vanilla RSA1 authentication"!

> I wouldn't expect it to. I was very surprised when an ssh user with RSA
> auth came to me with a "your password has expired" notice on the screen.

Well, with some technologies it could be done. E.g., /etc/shadow,
NIS/NIS+, etc... I have not checked, but I imagine that if you compile
SSH with PAM support then if the modules in your PAM stack support
checking for password expiry without a password, then so must SSH.

> --
> John Hardin                                   <johnh at aproposretail.com>


Cheers,

Nico
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