Overview

The loadable authentication module interface provides a means for extending identification and authentication (I&A) for new technologies. The interface implements a set of well-defined functions for performing user and group account access and management.

The degree of integration with the system administrative commands is limited by the amount of functionality provided by the module. When all of the functionality is present, the administrative commands are able to create, delete, modify and view user and group accounts as well as other administrative table data.

The security library and loadable authentication module communicate through the secmethod_table interface. The secmethod_table structure contains a list of subroutine pointers. Each subroutine pointer performs a well-defined operation. These subroutines are used by the security library to perform the operations which would have been performed using the local security database files. There are 2 versions of the secmethod_table structure, version 1 and version 2. Version 1 is now obsolete and applications must be written using the version 2 interface.