TACACS+ module for Name Service Switch (NSS)

Building libnss_tacplus.so.2

To build it:

1. You'll need a Linux machine with various build tools (developed/tested with CentOS 6.5, should work with 7, as well):

   $ yum groupinstall -y "Development Tools"
   

2. You'll need a recent version of the pam_tacplus code checked out from GitHub and build:

   $ git clone https://github.com/jeroennijhof/pam_tacplus.git
   $ cd pam_tacplus
   $ autoreconf -i && ./configure && make && sudo make install
   

3. Acquire the nss_tacplus source, and build the project:

   $ git clone https://github.com/benschumacher/nss_tacplus.git
   $ cd nss_tacplus
   $ make
   

4. You should now have a libnss_tacplus.so.2 library:

   $ ls -l libnss_tacplus.so.2
   -rwxrwxr-x. 1 vagrant vagrant 96759 Sep 19 18:04 libnss_tacplus.so.2*
   

5. Profit!

Assuming you've made it this far, you may want to figure out if it works.

TACACS+ Service Requirements

To provide sufficient information for the Linux-based operating system running on the host, there are several attribute-value pairs that must be associated with the user on the ACS server used by the deployment. User records on Unix-like systems need to have a valid "passwd" record for the system to operate correctly. Several of these fields can be inferred during the time of user authentication, but the remaining fields must be provided by the ACS server.

A standard "passwd" entry on a Unix-like system takes the following form:

<username>:<password>:<uid>:<gid>:<gecos>:<home>:<shell>

When authenticating the user via TACACS+, the software can assume values for the 'username', 'password' and 'gecos' fields, but the others must be provided by the ACS server. To facilitate this need, the system depends on the ACS server provided these AVP when responding to a TACACS+ Authorization query for a given 'username':

• uid

  A unique integer value greater than or equal to 501 that will serve as the numeric user identifier for the TACACS+ authenticated user on the host.

• gid

  The group identifier or the TACACS+ authenticated user on the host.

• home

  The user's home directory on the Linux system. To enable simplier management of these systems, the users should be configured with a pre-deployed shared home directory based on the role they're assigned with the gid.

  • home=/home/qns-su

    This should be used for users in the 'qns-su' group (gid=501)

  • home=/home/qns-admin

    This should be used for users in the 'qns-admin' group (gid=504)

  • home=/home/qns-su

    This should be used for users in the 'qns-ro' group (gid=505)

• shell

  The system-level login shell of the user. This can be any of the installed shells on the host, which can be determined by reviewing the contents of '/etc/shells'.

  A typically set of shells might include:

  • /bin/sh
  • /bin/bash
  • /sbin/nologin
  • /bin/dash
  • /usr/bin/sudosh

  The /usr/bin/sudosh shell can be used to audit user's activity on the system.

Using TACACS+ NSS module

1. There should be a sample configuration file in the etc' directory. To install it, copy it into your /etc` directory:

   $ sudo cp tacplus.conf /etc/tacplus.conf
   

2. There is also a user-unfriendly tool that you can use to validate that the library is working with. You use it like this:

   $ ./dlharness ./libnss_tacplus.so.2 _nss_tacplus_getpwnam_r bschumac
   User `bschumac' found:
   bschumac:x:504:503:bschumac:/home/bschumac:/usr/bin/sudosh
   $ ./dlharness ./libnss_tacplus.so.2 _nss_tacplus_getpwnam_r unknown
   Error: Can't find user `unknown': 0
   

   (That's right -- library and symbol names passed in via positional arguments. Take that UX-perts.)

   That integer value at the end correlates to an `nss_status' value. You can find those documented here: http://goo.gl/Dh6CrE

3. To test the "full stack" solution, you'll need 'nscd' installed, as well:

   $ yum install -y nscd
   

4. And you'll need to enable the PAM module for TACACS+. First copy the 'tacacs.pam' file into your /etc/pam.d:

   $ sudo cp tacacs.pam /etc/pam.d/tacacs
   

   Then enable it with SSHD by editing '/etc/pam.d/sshd' and make these modifications:

   'auth include tacacs' above 'auth include password-auth'
   'account include tacacs' above 'account include password-auth'
   'session include tacacs' above 'session include password-auth'
   

5. Ensure 'nscd' is running:

   $ service nscd restart
   

6. At this point you should be able to SSH into the system using TACACS+ accounts.

7. If you make changes and need to test something, it may be necessary to restart nscd and clear its cache:

   $ sudo service nscd restart
   $ sudo nscd -i passwd