[CentOS] centralised user authentication

[Kwan Lowe]

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 9:41 AM,  <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:

>> I'm new to centralized user authentication, and I want to learn how to
>> do it. I've heard that NIS is a deprecated technology, and that one
>> should favour LDAP over it. I'd be curious if someone could explain the
>> facts behind this (or even if it's true or not).
>
> NIS is *very* insecure and I *think* uses clear text (it was a kinder,
> gentler age). NIS+ is slightly better, but not a whole lot. LDAP is
> expecting encryption, at least SSL.

That's the heart of it... NIS was fine in a younger and more innocent
day :)  NIS+ was ostensibly more secure but was a pain to get quite
perfect. In many of the shops I visited that were using NIS+ there
were lots of misconfigurations that exposed more than planned.