OSF DCE Application Development Guide--Core Components

RPC and Other DCE Components
function to validate remote client calls to the server’s management
routines. For example, the user function can call
rpc_binding_inq_auth_caller( ) to return authentication and
authorization information about the calling client. The RPC runtime
calls the user-supplied function whenever it receives a client request to
execute one of the following server management routines:
• rpc_mgmt_inq_if_ids( )
• rpc_mgmt_inq_server_princ_name()
• rpc_mgmt_inq_stats()
• rpc_mgmt_is_server_listening( )
• rpc_mgmt_stop_server_listening( )
When an unauthenticated client calls a server that has specified authentication, the RPC
runtime will not perform any authentication, and the call will reach the application
manager code. It is up to the manager to decide how to deal with the unauthenticated
call.
Typically, servers and clients establish authentication as follows:
• The server specifies an authentication service for a principal identity under which it
runs by calling rpc_server_register_auth_info(). The authentication service is
specified by the authn_svc parameter of this call. Currently, servers may specify
either DCE secret key authentication (by supplying either rpc_c_authn_dce_secret
or rpc_c_authn_default) or no authentication (by supplying rpc_c_authn_none).
The specified authentication service will be used if it is also requested by the client.
• The client sets authentication for a binding handle by calling
rpc_binding_set_auth_info( ). The choices are also currently either DCE secret key
or no authentication. Client calls made on the binding handle attempt to use the
specified authentication service.
• The server manager code calls rpc_binding_inq_auth_caller() to extract any
authorization information from the client binding for the call.
14.3 Directory Services and RPC: Using the Namespace
This section discusses how the DCE RPC NSI configures directory service entries and
how RPC applications can use those entries. The following topics are included:
• Directory service entries defined by NSI
Describes the kinds of directory service entries NSI defines.
• Searching the namespace
Describes how the namespace is searched when a client requests binding
information.
• Strategies for using directory service entries
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