NAME

auth.conf - Configuration of authentication mechanisms for web interface of Sympa

DESCRIPTION

The auth.conf configuration file defines authentication mechanisms for web interface of Sympa.

auth.conf structure

Each paragraph starts with one of the names user_table, ldap, generic_sso, cas or cgi.

The auth.conf file contains directives in the following format:

name
keyword value
keyword value
...

name
keyword value
keyword value
...

Comments start with the # character at the beginning of a line.

Empty lines are also considered as comments and are ignored at the beginning. After the first paragraph, they are considered as paragraph separators. There should only be one directive per line, but their order in the paragraph is of no importance.

Succeeding subsections describe available parameters in each paragraph.

user_table paragraph

This paragraph is related to Sympa internal authentication by email and password. Information of users are stored in user_table database table. This is the simplest one.

• regexp regexp

• negative_regexp

  Perl regular expressions applied on an email address provided, to select or block this authentication mechanism for a subset of email addresses.

ldap paragraph

This paragraph allows one to login to Sympa using data taken from an LDAP directory. Login is done in two steps:

• User provide a user ID or an email address, with a password. These are used to retrieve their distinguished name (DN) in the LDAP directory.
• The email attribute is extracted from the directory entry corresponding to the found DN.

Here is how to configure the LDAP authentication:

• regexp

• negative_regexp

  Same as in the user_table paragraph: If an email address is provided (this does not apply to the user ID), then the regular expression will be applied to find out if the LDAP directory can be used to authenticate a subset of users.

• host

  This keyword is mandatory. It is the domain name used in order to bind to the directory and then to extract information. You must mention the port number after the server name. Server replication is supported by listing several servers separated by commas (,).

  Example:

    host ldap.univ-rennes1.fr:389
  
    host ldap0.university.com:389,ldap1.university.com:389,ldap2.university.com:389
  

• timeout

  It corresponds to the time limit in the search operation. A timelimit that restricts the maximum time (in seconds) allowed for a search. A value of 0 (the default) means that no time limit will be requested.

• suffix

  The root of the DIT (directory information tree). The DN that is the base object entry relative to which the search is to be performed.

  Example:

    dc=university,dc=fr
  

• bind_dn

  If anonymous bind is not allowed on the LDAP server, a DN and password can be used.

• bind_password

  This password is used, combined with the bind_dn above.

• get_dn_by_uid_filter

  Defines the search filter corresponding to the ldap_uid. (RFC 2254 compliant). If you want to apply the filter on the user, use the variable [sender]. It will work with every type of authentication (user ID, alternate_email, …).

  Example:

    (Login = [sender])
  
    (|(ID = [sender])(UID = [sender]))
  

• get_dn_by_email_filter

  Defines the search filter corresponding to the email addresses (canonic and alternative — this is RFC 2254 compliant). If you want to apply the filter on the user, use the variable [sender]. It will work with every type of authentication (user ID, alternate_email..).

  Example: a person is described by

    dn: cn=Fabrice Rafart, ou=Siege, o=MaSociete, c=FR
    objectClass: person
    cn: Fabrice Rafart
    title: Network Responsible
    o: Siege
    ou: Data processing
    telephoneNumber: 01-00-00-00-00
    facsimileTelephoneNumber: 01-00-00-00-00
    l: Paris
    country: France
    uid: frafart
    mail: Fabrice.Rafart@MaSociete.fr
    alternate_email: frafart@MaSociete.fr
    alternate: rafart@MaSociete.fr
  

  The filters can be:

    (mail = [sender])
  
    (| (mail = [sender])(alternate_email = [sender]) )
  
    (| (mail = [sender])(alternate_email = [sender])(alternate  = [sender]) )
  

• email_attribute

  The name of the attribute for the canonic email in your directory: for instance mail, canonic_email, canonic_address, … In the previous example, the canonic email is mail.

• alternative_email_attribute

  Obsoleted.

  On Sympa 6.2.38 or earlier, web interface provided a cookie named sympa_altemails which contained attribute values specified by this parameter along with authenticated email address. This feature was deprecated.

• scope

  Default value: sub

  By default, the search is performed on the whole tree below the specified base object. This may be changed by specifying a scope:

  • base

    Search only the base object,

  • one

    Search the entries immediately below the base object,

  • sub

    Search the whole tree below the base object. This is the default.

• authentication_info_url

  Defines the URL of a document describing LDAP password management. When hitting Sympa’s “Send me a password” button, LDAP users will be redirected to this URL.

TLS parameters

Following parameters are used to provide LDAPS (LDAP over TLS/SSL):

• use_ssl (OBSOLETE)

  If set to 1, connection to the LDAP server will use LDAPS (LDAP over TLS/SSL).

  Obsoleted as of Sympa 6.2.15. Use use_tls instead.

• use_tls

  Default value: none

  • ldaps

    Use LDAPS (LDAP over TLS/SSL),

  • starttls

    Use StartTLS,

  • none

    TLS (SSL) is disabled.

• ssl_version

  Default value: tlsv1

  This defines the version of the TLS/SSL protocol to use. Possible values are sslv2, sslv3, tlsv1, tlsv1_1 and tlsv1_2.

• ssl_ciphers

  Specify which subset of cipher suites are permissible for this connection, using the standard OpenSSL string format. The default value of Net::LDAPS for ciphers is ALL, which permits all ciphers, even those that do not encrypt!

• ssl_cert

  Path to client certificate.

  Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ssl_key

  Path to the secret key of client certificate.

  Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ca_verify

  none, optional or required. If set to none, will never verify server certificate. Latter two need appropriate ca_path and/or ca_file settings.

  Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ca_path

  Path to directory store of CA certificates.

  Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ca_file

  Path to file store of CA certificates.

  Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

generic_sso paragraph

• regexp

• negative_regexp

  See user_table paragraph.

• service_name

  This is the SSO service name that will be offered to the user in the login banner menu.

• service_id

  This service ID is used as a parameter by Sympa to refer to the SSO service (instead of the service name).

  A corresponding URL on the local web server should be protected by the SSO system; this URL would look like http://yourhost.yourdomain/sympa/sso_login/inqueue if the service_id is “inqueue”.

• http_header_list

  Sympa gets user attributes from environment variables coming from the web server. These variables are then cached in the user_table database table for later use in authorization scenarios (in structure). You can define a comma-separated list of header field names.

• http_header_prefix

  Only environment variables starting with the defined prefix will be kept. Another option is to list HTTP header fields explicitly using http_header_list parameter.

• email_http_header

  This parameter defines the environment variable that will contain the authenticated user’s email address.

• http_header_value_separator

  Default: ;

  User attributes may be multi-valued (including the user email address. This parameter defines the values separator character(s).

• logout_url

  This optional parameter allows one to specify the SSO logout URL. If defined, Sympa will redirect the user to this URL after the Sympa logout has been performed.

netID mapping parameters

The following parameters define how Sympa can check the user email address, either provided by the SSO or by the user themselves:

• internal_email_by_netid

  If set to 1, this parameter makes Sympa use its netidmap table to associate net IDs to user email addresses.

• netid_http_header

  This parameter defines the environment variable that will contain the user’s identifier. This net ID will then be associated with an email address provided by the user.

• force_email_verify

  If set to 1, this parameter makes Sympa check the user’s email address. If the email address was not provided by the authentication module, then the user is requested to provide a valid email address.

LDAP parameters for generic SSO

The following parameters define how Sympa can retrieve the user email address; these are useful only in case the email_http_header entry was not defined:

• ldap_host

  The LDAP host Sympa will connect to fetch user email. The ldap_host include the port number and it may be a comma separated list of redundant hosts.

• ldap_bind_dn

  The DN used to bind to this server. Anonymous bind is used if this parameter is not defined.

• ldap_bind_password

  The password used unless anonymous bind is used.

• ldap_suffix

  The LDAP suffix used when searching user email.

• ldap_scope

  The scope used when searching user email. Possible values are sub, base and one.

• ldap_get_email_by_uid_filter

  The filter used to perform the email search. It can refer to any environment variables inherited from the SSO module, as shown below.

  Example:

    ldap_get_email_by_uid_filter (mail=[SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_Email])
  

• ldap_email_attribute

  The attribute name to be used as user canonical email. In the current version of Sympa, only the first value returned by the LDAP server is used.

• ldap_timeout

  The time out for the search.

TLS parameters

To support LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS), corresponding parameters in ldap paragraph may also be used for generic_sso.

cas paragraph

Note that Sympa will act as a CAS client to validate CAS tickets. During this exchange, Sympa will check the CAS server X.509 certificate. Therefore you should ensure that the certificate authority of the CAS server is known by Sympa ; this should be configured through the cafile or capath sympa.conf configuration parameter.

• regexp

• negative_regexp

  See user_table paragraph.

• auth_service_name

  The authentication service name. Note that it is used as an identifier in the code; it should therefore be made of alphanumeric characters only, with no space.

• auth_service_friendly_name

  If defined, this string is proposed on the web login banner.

• host (OBSOLETE)

  This parameter has been replaced by base_url parameter.

• base_url

  The base URL of the CAS server.

• non_blocking_redirection

  on or off. Default value: on

  This parameter only concerns the first access to Sympa services by a user, it activates or not the non blocking redirection to the related CAS server to check automatically if the user as been previously authenticated with this CAS server. The redirection to CAS is used with the CGI parameter gateway=1 that specifies to CAS server to always redirect the user to the original URL, but just check if the user is logged. If active, the SSO service is effective and transparent, but in case the CAS server is out of order, the access to Sympa services is impossible.

• login_uri (OBSOLETE)

  This parameter has been replaced by the login_path parameter.

• login_path (OPTIONAL)

  The login service path.

• check_uri (OBSOLETE)

  This parameter has been replaced by the service_validate_path parameter.

• service_validate_path (OPTIONAL)

  The ticket validation service path.

• logout_uri (OBSOLETE)

  This parameter has been replaced by the logout_path parameter.

• logout_path (OPTIONAL)

  The logout service path.

• proxy_path (OPTIONAL)

  The proxy service path, only used by the Sympa SOAP server.

• proxy_validate_path (OPTIONAL)

  The proxy validate service path, only used by the Sympa SOAP server.

LDAP parameters for CAS

• ldap_host

  The LDAP host Sympa will connect to fetch user email when user uid is return by CAS service. The ldap_host includes the port number and it may be a comma separated list of redundant hosts.

• ldap_bind_dn

  The DN used to bind to this server. Anonymous bind is used if this parameter is not defined.

• ldap_bind_password

  The password used unless anonymous bind is used.

• ldap_suffix

  The LDAP suffix used when searching user email.

• ldap_scope

  The scope used when searching user email. Possible values are sub, base and one.

• ldap_get_email_by_uid_filter

  The filter used to perform the email search.

• ldap_email_attribute

  The attribute name to be used as user canonical email. In the current version of Sympa, only the first value returned by the LDAP server is used.

• ldap_timeout

  The time out for the search.

TLS parameters

To support LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS), corresponding parameters in ldap paragraph may also be used for cas.

cgi paragraph

This paragraph allows Sympa to receive authentication information from the external authentication mechanism through Common Gateway Interface (CGI). By this, Sympa may use authentication methods not supported by Sympa itself.

• regexp

• negative_regexp

  See user_table paragraph.

• remote_user_variable

  The name of the CGI environment variable that contains the e-mail address of the authenticated user. Note that the name of CGI variable is case-sensitive.

• auth_scheme

  Optional. If set, authentication is considered successful only if it matches the name of authentication scheme, i.e. value of the AUTH_TYPE CGI environment variable.

  The value of this parameter is case-insensitive.

FILES

• $DEFAULTDIR/auth.conf

  Distribution default. This file should not be edited.

• $SYSCONFDIR/auth.conf

• $SYSCONFDIR/<robot name>/auth.conf

  Configuration files for site-wide default and each robot.

SEE ALSO

wwsympa(8), sympa_soap_server(8).

Sympa::Auth.

HISTORY

Descriptions of parameters were originally taken from the chapter “Authentication” in Sympa, Mailing List Management Software - Reference manual, written by Serge Aumont, Soji Ikeda, Olivier Salaün and David Verdin.

cgi paragraph was introduced on Sympa 6.2.71b.