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# SSSD

From ArchWiki

Related articles

- LDAP authentication
- Identity management

SSSD is a system daemon. Its primary function is to provide access to identity and authentication remote resource through a common framework that can provide caching and offline support to the system. It provides PAM and NSS modules, and in the future will D-BUS based interfaces for extended user information. It provides also a better database to store local users as well as extended user data.

## Installation

Install the sssd package.

## Configuration

### LDAP

See LDAP authentication#SSSD configuration.

### PAM proxy

If you would like software running as a non-root user to be able to use `pam_unix.so` for authentication, you can run SSSD as a PAM proxy for this by creating the following files.

    /etc/sssd/sssd.conf

    [sssd]
    services = pam
    domains = local

    [domain/local]
    id_provider = proxy
    proxy_lib_name = files
    proxy_pam_target = sssd-shadowutils

    /etc/pam.d/sssd

    #%PAM-1.0

    auth      required  pam_sss.so
    account   required  pam_sss.so
    password  required  pam_sss.so
    session   required  pam_sss.so

Now specify `sssd` as the PAM service name in your software's configuration.

#### Run SSSD as root

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Reason: If an override is always needed, it requires further packaging changes. If not, a procedure to know when to interfere with packaging. (Discuss in Talk:SSSD)
Note: See archlinux/packaging/packages/sssd/#5 for negative impacts of overriding.

SSSD 2.10 and above runs as a non-root user by default, but here it needs to run as root in order to access `/etc/shadow`. Override the unit `sssd.service` exactly like this:

    [Service]
    Environment=DEBUG_LOGGER=--logger=files
    EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/sssd
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/chown -f root:sssd /etc/sssd
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/chown -f root:sssd /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/chown -f -R root:sssd /etc/sssd/conf.d
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/chown -f -R root:sssd /etc/sssd/pki
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/sh -c "/bin/chown -f root:sssd /var/lib/sss/db/*.ldb"
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/sh -c "/bin/chown -f root:sssd /var/lib/sss/gpo_cache/*"
    ExecStartPre=+-/bin/sh -c "/bin/chown -f root:sssd /var/log/sssd/*.log"
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/sssd -i ${DEBUG_LOGGER}
    Type=notify
    NotifyAccess=main
    Restart=on-abnormal
    CapabilityBoundingSet= CAP_CHOWN CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE CAP_SETGID CAP_SETUID CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH
    #SecureBits=noroot noroot-locked
    User=root
    Group=sssd
    # If service configured to be run under "root", uncomment "SupplementaryGroups"
    #SupplementaryGroups=sssd

Note that SSSD wants its files like `/var/log/sssd` and `/etc/sssd` to have the same owner as the user running SSSD, so you have to `chown` those files to be root-owned. Additionally, delete and add `/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/sssd-perms.conf` to `NoExtract` in `/etc/pacman.conf` to prevent systemd-tmpfiles from reverting the permissions of SSSD files.

Finally, enable/start `sssd.service`.

## Tips and tricks

### Prevent logins with empty passwords

If using SSSD as a PAM proxy, by default it allows logging into accounts with empty passwords, which could be undesirable. To fix this, remove `nullok` from `/etc/pam.d/sssd-shadowutils`:

    /etc/pam.d/sssd-shadowutils

    #%PAM-1.0
    auth        [success=done ignore=ignore default=die] pam_unix.so try_first_pass
    auth        required      pam_deny.so

    account     required      pam_unix.so
    account     required      pam_permit.so

Then add that file to `NoUpgrade` in `/etc/pacman.conf`.

## See also

- Official website

Category:

- Authentication

Hidden category:

- Pages or sections flagged with Template:Accuracy