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authorGerald Carter <jerry@samba.org>2001-04-19 21:41:01 +0000
committerGerald Carter <jerry@samba.org>2001-04-19 21:41:01 +0000
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+<chapter>
+
+
+<chapterinfo>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Tim</firstname><surname>Potter</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <orgname>Samba Team</orgname>
+ <address><email>tpot@linuxcare.com.au</email></address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Andrew</firstname><surname>Trigdell</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <orgname>Samba Team</orgname>
+ <address><email>tridge@linuxcare.com.au</email></address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+
+
+ <pubdate>16 Oct 2000</pubdate>
+</chapterinfo>
+
+<title>Unifed Logons between Windows NT and UNIX using Winbind</title>
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>Abstract</title>
+
+ <para>Integration of UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT through
+ a unified logon has been considered a "holy grail" in heterogeneous
+ computing environments for a long time. We present <emphasis>winbind
+ </emphasis>, a component of the Samba suite of programs as a
+ solution to the unied logon problem. Winbind uses a UNIX implementation
+ of Microsoft RPC calls, Pluggable Authentication Modules, and the Name
+ Service Switch to allow Windows NT domain users to appear and operate
+ as UNIX users on a UNIX machine. This paper describes the winbind
+ system, explaining the functionality it provides, how it is configured,
+ and how it works internally.</para>
+</sect1>
+
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>Introduction</title>
+
+ <para>It is well known that UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT have
+ different models for representing user and group information and
+ use different technologies for implementing them. This fact has
+ made it difficult to integrate the two systems in a satisfactory
+ manner.</para>
+
+ <para>One common solution in use today has been to create
+ identically named user accounts on both the UNIX and Windows systems
+ and use the Samba suite of programs to provide file and print services
+ between the two. This solution is far from perfect however, as
+ adding and deleting users on both sets of machines becomes a chore
+ and two sets of passwords are required both of which which
+ can lead to synchronization problems between the UNIX and Windows
+ systems and confusion for users.</para>
+
+ <para>We divide the unifed logon problem for UNIX machines into
+ three smaller problems:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>Obtaining Windows NT user and group information
+ </para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Authenticating Windows NT users
+ </para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Password changing for Windows NT users
+ </para></listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+
+ <para>Ideally, a prospective solution to the unified logon problem
+ would satisfy all the above components without duplication of
+ information on the UNIX machines and without creating additional
+ tasks for the system administrator when maintaining users and
+ groups on either system. The winbind system provides a simple
+ and elegant solution to all three components of the unifed logon
+ problem.</para>
+</sect1>
+
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>What Winbind Provides</title>
+
+ <para>Winbind unifies UNIX and Windows NT account management by
+ allowing a UNIX box to become a full member of a NT domain. Once
+ this is done the UNIX box will see NT users and groups as if
+ they were native UNIX users and groups, allowing the NT domain
+ to be used in much the same manner that NIS+ is used within
+ UNIX-only environments.</para>
+
+ <para>The end result is that whenever any
+ program on the UNIX machine asks the operating system to lookup
+ a user or group name, the query will be resolved by asking the
+ NT domain controller for the specied domain to do the lookup.
+ Because Winbind hooks into the operating system at a low level
+ (via the NSS name resolution modules in the C library) this
+ redirection to the NT domain controller is completely
+ transparent.</para>
+
+ <para>Users on the UNIX machine can then use NT user and group
+ names as they would use "native" UNIX names. They can chown files
+ so that they are owned by NT domain users or even login to the
+ UNIX machine and run a UNIX X-Window session as a domain user.</para>
+
+ <para>The only obvious indication that Winbind is being used is
+ that user and group names take the form DOMAIN\user and
+ DOMAIN\group. This is necessary as it allows Winbind to determine
+ that redirection to a domain controller is wanted for a particular
+ lookup and which trusted domain is being referenced.</para>
+
+ <para>Additionally, Winbind provides a authentication service
+ that hooks into the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) system
+ to provide authentication via a NT domain to any PAM enabled
+ applications. This capability solves the problem of synchronizing
+ passwords between systems as all passwords are stored in a single
+ location (on the domain controller).</para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Target Uses</title>
+
+ <para>Winbind is targeted at organizations that have an
+ existing NT based domain infrastructure into which they wish
+ to put UNIX workstations or servers. Winbind will allow these
+ organizations to deploy UNIX workstations without having to
+ maintain a separate account infrastructure. This greatly simplies
+ the administrative overhead of deploying UNIX workstations into
+ a NT based organization.</para>
+
+ <para>Another interesting way in which we expect Winbind to
+ be used is as a central part of UNIX based appliances. Appliances
+ that provide file and print services to Microsoft based networks
+ will be able to use Winbind to provide seamless integration of
+ the appliance into the domain.</para>
+ </sect2>
+</sect1>
+
+
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>How Winbind Works</title>
+
+ <para>The winbind system is designed around a client/server
+ architecture. A long running <command>winbindd</command> daemon
+ listens on a UNIX domain socket waiting for requests
+ to arrive. These requests are generated by the NSS and PAM
+ clients and processed sequentially.</para>
+
+ <para>The technologies used to implement winbind are described
+ in detail below.</para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Microsoft Remote Procedure Calls</title>
+
+ <para>Over the last two years, efforts have been underway
+ by various Samba Team members to decode various aspects of
+ the Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (MSRPC) system. This
+ system is used for most network related operations between
+ Windows NT machines including remote management, user authentication
+ and print spooling. Although initially this work was done
+ to aid the implementation of Primary Domain Controller (PDC)
+ functionality in Samba, it has also yielded a body of code which
+ can be used for other purposes.</para>
+
+ <para>Winbind uses various MSRPC calls to enumerate domain users
+ and groups and to obtain detailed information about individual
+ users or groups. Other MSRPC calls can be used to authenticate
+ NT domain users and to change user passwords. By directly querying
+ a Windows PDC for user and group information, winbind maps the
+ NT account information onto UNIX user and group names.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Name Service Switch</title>
+
+ <para>The Name Service Switch, or NSS, is a feature that is
+ present in many UNIX operating systems. It allows system
+ information such as hostnames, mail aliases and user information
+ to be resolved from dierent sources. For example, a standalone
+ UNIX workstation may resolve system information from a series of
+ flat files stored on the local lesystem. A networked workstation
+ may first attempt to resolve system information from local files,
+ then consult a NIS database for user information or a DNS server
+ for hostname information.</para>
+
+ <para>The NSS application programming interface allows winbind
+ to present itself as a source of system information when
+ resolving UNIX usernames and groups. Winbind uses this interface,
+ and information obtained from a Windows NT server using MSRPC
+ calls to provide a new source of account enumeration. Using standard
+ UNIX library calls, one can enumerate the users and groups on
+ a UNIX machine running winbind and see all users and groups in
+ a NT domain plus any trusted domain as though they were local
+ users and groups.</para>
+
+ <para>The primary control le for NSS is <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf
+ </filename>. When a UNIX application makes a request to do a lookup
+ the C library looks in <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename>
+ for a line which matches the service type being requested, for
+ example the "passwd" service type is used when user or group names
+ are looked up. This config line species which implementations
+ of that service should be tried andin what order. If the passwd
+ config line is:</para>
+
+ <para><command>passwd: files example</command></para>
+
+ <para>then the C library will first load a module called
+ <filename>/lib/libnss_files.so</filename> followed by
+ the module <filename>/lib/libnss_example.so</filename>. The
+ C library will dynamically load each of these modules in turn
+ and call resolver functions within the modules to try to resolve
+ the request. Once the request is resolved the C library returns the
+ result to the application.</para>
+
+ <para>This NSS interface provides a very easy way for Winbind
+ to hook into the operating system. All that needs to be done
+ is to put <filename>libnss_winbind.so</filename> in <filename>/lib/</filename>
+ then add "winbind" into <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename> at
+ the appropriate place. The C library will then call Winbind to
+ resolve user and group names.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Pluggable Authentication Modules</title>
+
+ <para>Pluggable Authentication Modules, also known as PAM,
+ is a system for abstracting authentication and authorization
+ technologies. With a PAM module it is possible to specify different
+ authentication methods for dierent system applications without
+ having to recompile these applications. PAM is also useful
+ for implementing a particular policy for authorization. For example,
+ a system administrator may only allow console logins from users
+ stored in the local password file but only allow users resolved from
+ a NIS database to log in over the network.</para>
+
+ <para>Winbind uses the authentication management and password
+ management PAM interface to integrate Windows NT users into a
+ UNIX system. This allows Windows NT users to log in to a UNIX
+ machine and be authenticated against a suitable Primary Domain
+ Controller. These users can also change their passwords and have
+ this change take eect directly on the Primary Domain Controller.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>PAM is congured by providing control files in the directory
+ <filename>/etc/pam.d/</filename> for each of the services that
+ require authentication. When an authentication request is made
+ by an application the PAM code in the C library looks up this
+ control file to determine what modules to load to do the
+ authentication check and in what order. This interface makes adding
+ a new authentication service for Winbind very easy, all that needs
+ to be done is that the <filename>pam_winbind.so</filename> module
+ is copied to <filename>/lib/security/</filename> and the pam
+ control files for relevant services are updated to allow
+ authentication via winbind. See the PAM documentation
+ for more details.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>User and Group ID Allocation</title>
+
+ <para>When a user or group is created under Windows NT
+ is it allocated a numerical relative identier (RID). This is
+ slightly dierent to UNIX which has a range of numbers which are
+ used to identify users, and the same range in which to identify
+ groups. It is winbind's job to convert RIDs to UNIX id numbers and
+ vice versa. When winbind is congured it is given part of the UNIX
+ user id space and a part of the UNIX group id space in which to
+ store Windows NT users and groups. If a Windows NT user is
+ resolved for the first time, it is allocated the next UNIX id from
+ the range. The same process applies for Windows NT groups. Over
+ time, winbind will have mapped all Windows NT users and groups
+ to UNIX user ids and group ids.</para>
+
+ <para>The results of this mapping are stored persistently in
+ a ID mapping database held in a tdb database). This ensures that
+ RIDs are mapped to UNIX IDs in a consistent way.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Result Caching</title>
+
+ <para>An active system can generate a lot of user and group
+ name lookups. To reduce the network cost of these lookups winbind
+ uses a caching scheme based on the SAM sequence number supplied
+ by NT domain controllers. User or group information returned
+ by a PDC is cached by winbind along with a sequence number also
+ returned by the PDC. This sequence number is incremented by
+ Windows NT whenever any user or group information is modied. If
+ a cached entry has expired, the sequence number is requested from
+ the PDC and compared against the sequence number of the cached entry.
+ If the sequence numbers do not match, then the cached information
+ is discarded and up to date information is requested directly
+ from the PDC.</para>
+ </sect2>
+</sect1>
+
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>Installation and Configuration</title>
+
+ <para>The easiest way to install winbind is by using the packages
+ provided in the <filename>pub/samba/appliance/</filename>
+ directory on your nearest
+ Samba mirror. These packages provide snapshots of the Samba source
+ code and binaries already setup to provide the full functionality
+ of winbind. This setup is a little more complex than a normal Samba
+ build as winbind needs a small amount of functionality from a
+ development code branch called SAMBA_TNG.</para>
+
+ <para>Once you have installed the packages you should read
+ the <command>winbindd(8)</command> man page which will provide you
+ with conguration information and give you sample conguration files.
+ You may also wish to update the main Samba daemons smbd and nmbd)
+ with a more recent development release, such as the recently
+ announced Samba 2.2 alpha release.</para>
+</sect1>
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>Limitations</title>
+
+ <para>Winbind has a number of limitations in its current
+ released version which we hope to overcome in future
+ releases:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>Winbind is currently only available for
+ the Linux operating system, although ports to other operating
+ systems are certainly possible. For such ports to be feasible,
+ we require the C library of the target operating system to
+ support the Name Service Switch and Pluggable Authentication
+ Modules systems. This is becoming more common as NSS and
+ PAM gain support among UNIX vendors.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>The mappings of Windows NT RIDs to UNIX ids
+ is not made algorithmically and depends on the order in which
+ unmapped users or groups are seen by winbind. It may be difficult
+ to recover the mappings of rid to UNIX id mapping if the file
+ containing this information is corrupted or destroyed.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Currently the winbind PAM module does not take
+ into account possible workstation and logon time restrictions
+ that may be been set for Windows NT users.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>Building winbind from source is currently
+ quite tedious as it requires combining source code from two Samba
+ branches. Work is underway to solve this by providing all
+ the necessary functionality in the main Samba code branch.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+</sect1>
+
+
+<sect1>
+ <title>Conclusion</title>
+
+ <para>The winbind system, through the use of the Name Service
+ Switch, Pluggable Authentication Modules, and appropriate
+ Microsoft RPC calls have allowed us to provide seamless
+ integration of Microsoft Windows NT domain users on a
+ UNIX system. The result is a great reduction in the administrative
+ cost of running a mixed UNIX and NT network.</para>
+
+</sect1>
+
+</chapter>
+