Re: Design Considerations for New Authentication Methods

> > * Henry B. Hotz (hotz(at)jpl(dot)nasa(dot)gov) wrote:
> >> I've been looking at adding SASL or GSSAPI as an auth
> method. I have
> >> some questions about how to handle the flow of control changes.
> >
> > Great! I'd love to see that implemented, personally, so if you're
> > looking for help, please let me know.
>
> Thank you. I will! ;-)
>
> Do you know Java? I'm doing this ultimately because I want
> the JDBC driver to support encrypted connections with
> Kerberos and without needing SSL. As an added plus a
> Windows-native client should support it.

Interesting, I thought you were going for the authentication only.
What's the real gain in doing Kerberos encryption over SSL encryption?
Doesn't Java come with SSL support anyway these days?

> My main hesitation between SASL and GSSAPI is that the
> Windows equivalent APIs for SASL have not received the same
> degree of interoperability testing as SSPI<-->GSSAPI. I
> don't have a published example to crib from. For general
> information the relevant calls are at the bottom of
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/
> library/en-us/secauthn/security/authentication_functions.asp>.

One reason for this could be that they appear to be available only on
server platforms, and not on cilents, if you look at the documentation.
That said, I have the DLL file and the export functions on my XP
machine, so it's definitly present there - I'm unsure if it *works* or
is supported. My registry does indicate that I have the GSSAPI profile
for SASL, which would be an indication that it should.

//Magnus