The getauthattr() and getauthnam() functions each return an auth_attr(4) entry. Entries can come from any of the sources specified in the nsswitch.conf(4) file.

The getauthattr() function enumerates auth_attr entries. The getauthnam() function searches for an auth_attr entry with a given authorization name name. Successive calls to these functions return either successive auth_attr entries or NULL.

Th internal representation of an auth_attr entry is an authattr_t structure defined in <auth_attr.h> with the following members:

char   *name;        /* name of the authorization */
char   *res1;        /* reserved for future use */
char   *res2;        /* reserved for future use */
char   *short_desc;  /* short description */
char   *long_desc;   /* long description */
kva_t  *attr;        /* array of key-value pair attributes */

The setauthattr() function "rewinds" to the beginning of the enumeration of auth_attr entries. Calls to getauthnam() can leave the enumeration in an indeterminate state. Therefore, setauthattr() should be called before the first call to getauthattr().

The endauthattr() function may be called to indicate that auth_attr processing is complete; the system may then close any open auth_attr file, deallocate storage, and so forth.

The chkauthattr() function verifies whether or not a user has a given authorization. It first reads the AUTHS_GRANTED key in the /etc/security/policy.conf file and returns 1 if it finds a match for the given authorization. If chkauthattr() does not find a match, it reads the PROFS_GRANTED key in /etc/security/policy.conf and returns 1 if the given authorization is in any profiles specified with the PROFS_GRANTED keyword. If a match is not found from the default authorizations and default profiles, chkauthattr() reads the user_attr(4) database. If it does not find a match in user_attr, it reads the prof_attr(4) database, using the list of profiles assigned to the user, and checks if any of the profiles assigned to the user has the given authorization. The chkauthattr() function returns 0 if it does not find a match in any of the three sources.

A user is considered to have been assigned an authorization if either of the following are true:

• The authorization name matches exactly any authorization assigned in the user_attr or prof_attr databases (authorization names are case-sensitive).
• The authorization name suffix is not the key word grant and the authorization name matches any authorization up to the asterisk (*) character assigned in the user_attr or prof_attr databases.

The examples in the following table illustrate the conditions under which a user is assigned an authorization.

The free_authattr() function releases memory allocated by the getauthnam() and getauthattr() functions.

The getauthattr() function returns a pointer to an authattr_t if it successfully enumerates an entry; otherwise it returns NULL, indicating the end of the enumeration.

The getauthnam() function returns a pointer to an authattr_t if it successfully locates the requested entry; otherwise it returns NULL.

The chkauthattr() function returns 1 if the user is authorized and 0 otherwise.

The getauthattr() and getauthnam() functions both allocate memory for the pointers they return. This memory should be de-allocated with the free_authattr() call.

Applications that use the interfaces described in this manual page cannot be linked statically, since the implementations of these functions employ dynamic loading and linking of shared objects at run time. Note that these interfaces are reentrant even though they do not use the _r suffix naming convention.

Individual attributes in the attr structure can be referred to by calling the kva_match(3SECDB) function.

Because the list of legal keys is likely to expand, code must be written to ignore unknown key-value pairs without error.

/etc/nsswitch.conf

configuration file lookup information for the name server switch

/etc/user_attr

extended user attributes

/etc/security/auth_attr

authorization attributes

/etc/security/policy.conf

policy definitions

/etc/security/prof_attr

profile information

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

getexecattr(3SECDB), getprofattr(3SECDB), getuserattr(3SECDB), auth_attr(4), nsswitch.conf(4), prof_attr(4), user_attr(4), attributes(5), rbac(5)