PAM LDAP: Kerberos vs SSL (LDAP SSL)

wilslm · 04-21-2011, 07:18 AM

Guys, I am confused with the concept of Kerberos and LDAP SSL. I am in the midst of integrating my Unix box with the Active Directory hence the use of PAM_LDAP method.

I understand that since it's non-secure transmission hence We use Kerberos to authenticate. If we already used kerberos to authenticate i.e. it means that the username/password is not transmitted in clear text.

Why we still need LDAP SSL? What is the benefit?

acid_kewpie · 04-21-2011, 02:25 PM

The two certainly don't clash at all. Kerberos is only for authentication whilst ldap can be used for authentication , authorization and information. So even if you are not authenticating with it there is still plenty of data worth protecting.

Note though that kerberos doesn't ever send your password anywhere, only tickets encoded with it. And leap over SSL on 636 is largely obsolete in preference of using starttls on 389.

wilslm · 04-22-2011, 08:07 AM

acid = thanks for the info.

However in my case since PAM_LDAP Kerberos is used for authentication only, there are no extra benefit of having SSL enabled? since most of the query would be authentication.

Am I correct to say this? or there is hidden benefit of having SSL enabled? I can appreciate if LDAP is being used to store say employee information and the client requires to retrieve the information from the LDAP often.

acid_kewpie · 04-22-2011, 08:50 AM

Wtf? If you're only using "ldap and kerberos " for authentication then you aren't surely using ldap at all. Otherwise my above answer stands and encryption is always a responsible thing to use.