HP WBEM Services Version A.02.07 Release Notes, September 2008, Second Edition

Table 1-2 Remote User Authentication Methods
HTTP Basic AuthenticationCertificate Based Authentication (CBA)
Description
Using a request/challenge mechanism and
authenticating the user-supplied username and
password through Pluggable Authentication
Modules (PAM).
The cimserver requests the client certificate while
HTTPS connection is in progress.
Benefits and Considerations
• Easier to setup, as it does not require any server
configuration.
• Requires the remote user to provide a password
each time to access the WBEM data.
• You will have to update the client application
each time the password is changed.
• Requires a one-time server configuration.
• Does not require the remote user to provide a
password each time to access the WBEM data.
The benefits of not requiring a password include:
• Prevents intruders from gaining access to
internal network resources by “spoofing”
passwords.
• Additional configuration or updates to
applications is not required whenever a
password is changed.
For more information, see...
“More about using HTTP Basic Authentication”
(page 13)
“More about using Client Certificate-Based
Authentication” (page 14)
More about using HTTP Basic Authentication
The /etc/pam.conf file is the configuration file for PAM. The /etc/pam.conf file
contains a list of services and each service is mapped to a corresponding service module.
When a service is requested, its associated module is invoked. WBEM Services will
default to the authentication mechanism specified in the OTHER directive of the
/etc/pam.conf file. To use other authentication methods, you must edit
the/etc/pam.conf file and add a "wbem" service entry. See example below. For
additional information, please refer to the pam(3) and pam.conf(4) man pages.
#
# Example of /etc/pam.conf file with WBEM services (using LDAP)
#
# Authentication management
wbem auth required libpam_hpsec.so.1
wbem auth sufficient libpam_unix.so.1
wbem auth required libpam_ldap.so.1 try_first_pass
# Account management
Security 13