Gnats + PAM

[Pankaj K Garg]

I've got an early version of a PAM user authentication
integrated with GNATS. The idea is that when you specify
a line like:

userx:$2$:edit:

in the gnatsd.access (or gnatsd.user_access) file, gnatsd
will try to authenticate the user using PAM. This way
if you have system users then you don't have to replicate
their passwords all over the place, but can get them authenticated
using PAM.

Of course, since PAM sends passwords in clear text, one
has to be careful to not unnecessarily compromise their user's
passwords. This can still be used, however, in case you are
using Gnatsweb that will be talking with the local gnatsd.

Also, one can use a centralized list of user:passwords and
check against that, instead of having to replicate passwords
in all databases. This could be a GNATS specific list so that
system passwords are not compromised.

So, maybe this will be useful. If you want to help in testing it
out, please send me a note and I can send you a patch for the early 
version to test. Once this has been tested enough we can submit a patch
for the 4.0? or later release?

Regards

Pankaj

--- 
Pankaj K Garg              address@hidden
1684 Nightingale Avenue    408-373-4027
Sunnyvale, CA 94304
http://home.earthlink.net/~gargp