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  <section id="access-control-identifier-aci">
<span id="imap-admin-access-control-identifiers"></span><h1>Access Control Identifier (ACI)<a class="headerlink" href="#access-control-identifier-aci" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h1>
<p>The Access Control Identifier (ACI) part of an ACL entry specifies the
user or group for which the entry applies.  Group identifiers are
distinguished be the prefix &quot;group:&quot;.  For example, &quot;group:accounting&quot;.</p>
<p>There are two special identifiers, &quot;anonymous&quot;, and &quot;anyone&quot;, which are
explained below. The meaning of other identifiers usually depends on
the authorization mechanism being used (selected by <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--with-auth</span></code> at
compile time, defaulting to Unix).</p>
<section id="anonymous-and-anyone">
<h2><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">anonymous</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">anyone</span></code><a class="headerlink" href="#anonymous-and-anyone" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>With any authorization mechanism, two special identifiers are defined.
The identifier <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">anonymous</span></code> refers to the anonymous, or unauthenticated
user. The identifier <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">anyone</span></code> refers to all users, including the
anonymous user.</p>
<p>Both <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">anonymous</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">anyone</span></code> may commonly be used with the <strong>post</strong>
right <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">p</span></code> to allow message insertion to mailboxes.</p>
</section>
<section id="kerberos-vs-unix-authorization">
<h2>Kerberos vs. Unix Authorization<a class="headerlink" href="#kerberos-vs-unix-authorization" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>The Cyrus IMAP server comes with four authorization mechanisms, one is
compatible with Unix-style (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/passwd</span></code>) authorization, one for use
with Kerberos 4, one for use with Kerberos 5, and one for use with an
external authorization process (ptloader) which can interface with
other group databases (e.g. AFS PTS groups, LDAP Groups, etc).</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p><strong>Authentication !== Authorization</strong></p>
<p>Note that authorization is <em>not</em> the same thing as authentication.
Authentication is the act of proving who you are. Authorization is
the act of determining what rights you have. Authentication is
discussed in the <a class="reference internal" href="../../../concepts/overview_and_concepts.html#imap-concepts-login-authentication"><span class="std std-ref">Login Authentication</span></a> part of
this document.</p>
</div>
<section id="unix-authorization">
<h3>Unix Authorization<a class="headerlink" href="#unix-authorization" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3>
<p>In the Unix authorization mechanism, ACIs are either a valid userid or
the string <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">group:</span></code> followed by a group listed in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/group</span></code>.
Thus:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">root</span>                <span class="n">Refers</span> <span class="n">to</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">user</span> <span class="n">root</span>
<span class="n">group</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="n">staff</span>         <span class="n">Refers</span> <span class="n">to</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">group</span> <span class="n">staff</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>It is also possible to use unix groups with users authenticated through
a non-/etc/passwd backend. Note that using unix groups in this way
(without associated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/passwd</span></code> entries) is not recommended.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>Cyrus requires the getgrent(3) POSIX sysctl. As such, NSS needs to
be configured to have the groups available, one of which includes
&quot;files&quot;, but could also include &quot;ldap&quot;.</p>
<p>NSS augmentations, such as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">nss_ldap</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pam_ldap</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sssd</span></code>
may be used to provide Cyrus access to group information via NSS.</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="kerberos-authorization">
<h3>Kerberos Authorization<a class="headerlink" href="#kerberos-authorization" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3>
<p>Using the Kerberos authorization mechanism, ACIs are of the form:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><p><em>$principal</em>.*$instance*&#64;*$realm*</p>
</div></blockquote>
<p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$instance</span></code> is omitted, it defaults to the null string. If
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$realm</span></code> is omitted, it defaults to the local realm.</p>
<p>The file <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/krb.equiv</span></code> contains mappings between Kerberos
principals. The file contains zero or more lines, each containing two
fields. Any identity matching the first field of a line is changed to
the second identity during canonicalization. For example, a line in
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/krb.equiv</span></code> of:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">bovik</span><span class="nd">@REMOTE</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">COM</span> <span class="n">bovik</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>will cause the identity <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bovik&#64;REMOTE.COM</span></code> to be treated as if it
were the local identity <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bovik</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<section id="alternative-authorization">
<h3>Alternative Authorization<a class="headerlink" href="#alternative-authorization" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3>
<p>A site may wish to write their own authorization mechanism, perhaps to
implement a local group mechanism. If it does so (by implementing an
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">auth_[whatever]</span></code> PTS module), it will dictate its own form and
meaning of identifiers.</p>
</section>
</section>
</section>


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