HP-UX Secure Shell Getting Started Guide HP-UX 11i v1, HP-UX 11i v2, and HP-UX 11i v3 (5900-3142, June 2013)

4 Configuring HP-UX Secure Shell Authentication Methods
This chapter describes how to configure HP-UX Secure Shell authentication methods.
This chapter addresses the following topics:
• “Overview” (page 32)
• “Configuring Password Authentication” (page 32)
• “Configuring Public-Key Authentication” (page 34)
• “Configuring Kerberos Authentication” (page 35)
• “Configuring Keyboard-Interactive Authentication” (page 40)
• “Configuring Host-Based Authentication” (page 40)
• “Configuring User-Specific Authentication” (page 42)
Overview
HP-UX Secure Shell supports the following authentication methods:
• Password authentication
• Public-key authentication
• Kerberos authentication
• Keyboard Interactive authentication
• Host-based authentication
Although this is the complete list of supported authentication methods, you can set up sshd to
support only a subset of these methods, based on your requirements.
When a client connects to the server, the server responds with its list of supported authentication
methods. This list represents the authentication methods supported by the server and the order of
preference. The client can omit one or more of the authentication methods and can also change
the sequence in which the methods are attempted. The client makes changes using a configuration
directive in the /opt/ssh/etc/ssh_config client configuration file. The preferred authentication
method is one of the most important configuration parameters of the client.
Configuring Password Authentication
The password authentication method relies on the existence of a user ID and password. You can
configure password authentication using either of the following files:
• /etc/passwd
• /etc/pam.conf
The following sections discuss how to configure password authentication using these files.
Configuring Password Authentication Using the/etc/passwd File
To configure password authentication in HP-UX Secure Shell using the /etc/passwd file, follow
these steps:
32 Configuring HP-UX Secure Shell Authentication Methods