NOTE: the Sudo auth API is subject to change Purpose: to provide a simple API for authentication methods that encapsulates things nicely without turning into a maze of #ifdef's The sudo_auth struct looks like this: typedef struct sudo_auth { short flags; /* various flags, see below */ short status; /* status from verify routine */ char *name; /* name of the method in string form */ void *data; /* method-specific data pointer */ int (*init) __P((struct passwd *pw, char **prompt, sudo_auth *auth)); int (*setup) __P((struct passwd *pw, char **prompt, sudo_auth *auth)); int (*verify) __P((struct passwd *pw, char *p, sudo_auth *auth)); int (*cleanup) __P((struct passwd *pw, sudo_auth *auth)); } sudo_auth; The variables in the struct are as follows: flags Bitwise binary flags, see below. status Contains the return value from the last run of the "verify" function. Starts out as AUTH_FAILURE. name The name of the authentication method as a C string. data A pointer to method-specific data. This is passed to all the functions of an auth method and is usually initialized in the "init" or "setup" routines. Possible values of sudo_auth.flags: FLAG_USER Whether or not the auth functions should run with the euid of the invoking user instead of 0. FLAG_CONFIGURED If set then the auth method is assumed to have been configured successfully. All auth methods start out with this set. If an "init" or "setup" function fails, this bit is cleared. FLAG_ONEANDONLY If set, this indicates that the method is the only one in use. Can be used by auth functions to determine whether to return a fatal or nonfatal error. The member functions can return the following values: AUTH_SUCCESS Function succeeded. For a ``verify'' function this means the user correctly authenticated. AUTH_FAILURE Function failed. If this is an ``init'' or ``setup'' routine, the auth method will be marked as !configured. AUTH_FATAL A fatal error occurred. The routine should have written an error message to stderr and optionally sent mail to the administrator. (If log_error() is called to do this, the NO_EXIT flag must be used.) When verify_user() gets AUTH_FATAL from an auth function it does an exit(1). The functions in the struct are as follows: int init(struct passwd *pw, char **prompt, sudo_auth *auth) Function to do any one-time initialization for the auth method. All of the "init" functions are run before anything else. A pointer to the prompt string may be used to add method-specific info to the prompt. int setup(struct passwd *pw, char **prompt, sudo_auth *auth) Function to do method-specific setup. All the "setup" routines are run before any of the "verify" routines. A pointer to the prompt string may be used to add method-specific info to the prompt. int verify(struct passwd *pw, char *p, sudo_auth *auth) Function to do user verification for this auth method. For standalone auth methods ``p'' is the prompt string. For normal auth methods, ``p'' is the password the user entered. Note that standalone auth methods are responsible for rerading the password themselves. int cleanup(struct passwd *pw, sudo_auth *auth) Function to do per-auth method cleanup. This is only run at the end of the authentication process, after the user has completely failed or succeeded to authenticate. The ``auth->status'' variable contains the result of the last authentication attempt which may be interesting. A note about standalone methods. Some authentication methods can't coexist with any others. This may be because they encapsulate other methods (pam, sia) or because they have a special way of interacting with the user (securid). Adding a new authentication method: Each method should live in its own file. Add prototypes for the functions in sudo_auth.h. If this is a standalone method, add it to the standalone #if cascade in sudo_auth.h. For instance, for a method, ``fooauth'', add: #elif defined(HAVE_FOOAUTH) # define AUTH_STANDALONE \ AUTH_ENTRY(0, "foo", \ foo_init, foo_setup, foo_verify, foo_cleanup) If the method needs to run as the user, not root, replace the first parameter to AUTH_ENTRY (0) with FLAG_USER. If you don't have a init/setup/cleanup routine, just use a NULL for that field. For a normal authentication method, add it to the ``auth_switch'' in sudo_auth.c. If ``fooauth'' is a normal auth method, its entry would look like: # ifdef HAVE_FOOAUTH AUTH_ENTRY(0, "foo", foo_init, foo_setup, foo_verify, foo_cleanup) # endif Again, if the method doesn't need to run as root, replace the 0 with FLAG_USER. Likewise, if you don't have a init/setup/cleanup routine, just use a NULL for that field. NOTE: You should not make a method both ``standalone'' and ``normal''. Just use the --without-passwd configure argument to disable passwd/shadow file checking and then have your auth routines check the FLAG_ONEANDONLY flag to see if they are running standalone and act accordingly.