Generic Security Services Application Program Interface

The Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSSAPI, also GSS-API) is an application programming interface for programs to access security services.

The GSSAPI is an IETF standard that addresses the problem of many similar but incompatible security services in use today.

Operation

The GSSAPI, by itself, does not provide any security. Instead, security-service vendors provide GSSAPI implementations - usually in the form of libraries installed with their security software. These libraries present a GSSAPI-compatible interface to application writers who can write their application to use only the vendor-independent GSSAPI. If the security implementation ever needs replacing, the application need not be rewritten.

The definitive feature of GSSAPI applications is the exchange of opaque messages (tokens) which hide the implementation detail from the higher-level application. The client and server sides of the application are written to convey the tokens given to them by their respective GSSAPI implementations. GSSAPI tokens can usually travel over an insecure network as the mechanisms provide inherent message security. After the exchange of some number of tokens, the GSSAPI implementations at both ends inform their local application that a security context has been established.

Once a security context is established, sensitive application messages can be wrapped (encrypted) by the GSSAPI for secure communication between client and server. Typical protections guaranteed by GSSAPI wrapping include confidentiality (secrecy) and integrity (authenticity). The GSSAPI can also provide local guarantees about the identity of the remote user or remote host.

The GSSAPI describes about 45 procedure calls. Significant ones include:

The GSSAPI has been standardized for the C (RFC 2744) language. Java implements the GSSAPI[1] as JGSS,[2] the Java Generic Security Services Application Program Interface.[3]

Limitations of the GSSAPI include that it standardizes only authentication, and not authorization, and that it assumes a client–server architecture.

Anticipating new security mechanisms, the GSSAPI includes a negotiating pseudo mechanism, SPNEGO, that can discover and use new mechanisms not present when the original application was built.

Relationship to Kerberos

The dominant GSSAPI mechanism implementation in use is Kerberos. Unlike the GSSAPI, the Kerberos API has not been standardized and various existing implementations use incompatible APIs. The GSSAPI allows Kerberos implementations to be API compatible.

Key concepts

Name 
A binary string that labels a security principal (i.e., user or service program) - see access control and identity. For example, Kerberos uses names like user@REALM for users and service/hostname@REALM for programs.
Credentials 
Information that proves an identity; used by an entity to act as the named principal. Credentials typically involve a secret cryptographic key.
Context 
The state of one end of the authenticating/authenticated protocol. May provide message protection services, which can be used to compose a secure channel.
Tokens 
Opaque messages exchanged either as part of the initial authentication protocol (context-level tokens), or as part of a protected communication (per-message tokens)
Mechanism 
An underlying GSSAPI implementation that provides actual names, tokens and credentials. Known mechanisms include Kerberos, NTLM, Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), SESAME, SPKM, LIPKEY.
Initiator/acceptor 
The peer that sends the first token is the initiator; the other is the acceptor. Generally, the client program is the initiator while the server is the acceptor.

History

See also

References

  1. ↑ "JSR-000072 Generic Security Services API Specification 0.1". 2001-06-15. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  2. ↑ Schönefeld, Marc (2010). Refactoring of Security Antipatterns in Distributed Java Components. Schriften aus der Fakultät Wirtschaftsinformatik und Angewandte Informatik der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg. 5. University of Bamberg Press. p. 179. ISBN 9783923507689. Retrieved 2015-10-07. JGSS is the JAVA implementation of the GSSAPI.
  3. ↑ Fisher, Marina; Sharma, Sonu; Lai, Ray; Moroney, Laurence (2006). Java EE and .NET Interoperability: Integration Strategies, Patterns, and Best Practices. Prentice Hall Professional. ISBN 9780132715706. Retrieved 2015-10-07. Java Generic Security Services Application Program Interface (JGSS) API for uniform access to security services atop a variety of underlying security mechanism, including Kerberos, which are building blocks for single sign-on and data encryption.


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