Overview

Implementing COM application security on Tru64 UNIX presents interesting problems, not the least of which is that COM authentication on Tru64 UNIX involves security-specific communication between the Tru64 UNIX machine and an NT machine (called the Primary Domain Controller) to implement NTLM SSPI.

The implementation of security with COM for Tru64 UNIX was not complete with Version 1.0. That is, Version 1.0 did not include authentication; applications had to contain a CoInitializeSecurity call with authorization set to NONE and impersonation set to ANONYMOUS. The most recent version of COM for Tru64 UNIX is security-enabled and supports encryption.

Security

There are several levels of COM application security on Tru64 UNIX:

• Security in the form of call security that allows a client or server application to apply an appropriate security level to method calls.
• Security in the form of the Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI) standard that defines security providers that can be accessible to COM server applications. Microsoft NT uses the Windows NT LanManager Security Support Provider (also called NTLM SSP). COM for Tru64 UNIX supports NTLM SSPI calls for client authentication.
• Security in the form of the security subsystem that authenticates communication between the Tru64 UNIX server (paulad) and the Windows NT Primary Domain Controller (paulas).

The basic steps to establish COM application security on the Tru64 UNIX operating system are:

• Make sure that the security subsystem is enabled; that is, that paulad is active on your server and paulas is installed and active on the Windows NT Primary...