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Cred: Pluggable Authentication
==============================






Goals
-----



Cred is a pluggable authentication system for servers.  It allows any
number of network protocols to connect and authenticate to a system, and
communicate to those aspects of the system which are meaningful to the specific
protocol.  For example, Twisted's POP3 support passes a "username and password" set of credentials to get back a mailbox for the specified email
account.  IMAP does the same, but retrieves a slightly different view of the
same mailbox, enabling those features specific to IMAP which are not available
in other mail protocols.




Cred is designed to allow both the backend implementation of the business
logic - called the *avatar* - and the authentication database - called
the *credential checker* - to be decided during deployment. For example,
the same POP3 server should be able to authenticate against the local UNIX
password database or an LDAP server without having to know anything about how
or where mail is stored.  




To sketch out how this works - a "Realm" corresponds to an application
domain and is in charge of avatars, which are network-accessible business logic
objects.  To connect this to an authentication database, a top-level object
called a :api:`twisted.cred.portal.Portal <Portal>` stores a
realm, and a number of credential checkers.  Something that wishes to log in,
such as a :api:`twisted.internet.protocol.Protocol <Protocol>` ,
stores a reference to the portal. Login consists of passing credentials and a
request interface (e.g. POP3's :api:`twisted.mail.pop3.IMailbox <IMailbox>` ) to the portal. The portal passes
the credentials to the appropriate credential checker, which returns an avatar
ID. The ID is passed to the realm, which returns the appropriate avatar.  For a
Portal that has a realm that creates mailbox objects and a credential checker
that checks /etc/passwd, login consists of passing in a username/password and
the IMailbox interface to the portal. The portal passes this to the /etc/passwd
credential checker, gets back a avatar ID corresponding to an email account,
passes that to the realm and gets back a mailbox object for that email
account.




Putting all this together, here's how a login request will typically be
processed:





.. image:: ../img/cred-login.png

    



Cred objects
------------

    

The Portal
~~~~~~~~~~


This is the the core of login, the point of integration between all the objects
in the cred system.  There is one
concrete implementation of Portal, and no interface - it does a very
simple task.  A :api:`twisted.cred.portal.Portal <Portal>` 
associates one (1) Realm with a collection of
CredentialChecker instances.  (More on those later.)




If you are writing a protocol that needs to authenticate against
something, you will need a reference to a Portal, and to nothing else.
This has only 2 methods -





- :api:`twisted.cred.portal.Portal.login <login>` ``(credentials, mind, *interfaces)`` 
  
  The docstring is quite expansive (see :api:`twisted.cred.portal <twisted.cred.portal>` ), but in
  brief, this is what you call when you need to call in order to connect
  a user to the system.  Typically you only pass in one interface, and the mind
  is ``None`` . The interfaces are the possible interfaces the returned
  avatar is expected to implement, in order of preference.
  The result is a deferred which fires a tuple of:
  
  
  
  
  
  - interface the avatar implements (which was one of the interfaces passed in the ``*interfaces`` 
    tuple)
  - an object that implements that interface (an avatar)
  - logout, a 0-argument callable which disconnects the connection that was
    established by this call to login
  
  
  
  The logout method has to be called when the avatar is logged out. For POP3 this means
  when the protocol is disconnected or logged out, etc..
  
- :api:`twisted.cred.portal.Portal.registerChecker <registerChecker>` ``(checker, *credentialInterfaces)`` 
  
  which adds a CredentialChecker to the portal. The optional list of interfaces are interfaces of credentials
  that the checker is able to check.
  


    



The CredentialChecker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



This is an object implementing :api:`twisted.cred.checkers.ICredentialsChecker <ICredentialsChecker>` which resolves some
credentials to an avatar ID.

Whether the credentials are stored in an in-memory data structure, an
Apache-style htaccess file, a UNIX password database, an SSH key database,
or any other form, an implementation of ``ICredentialsChecker`` is
how this data is connected to cred.

A credential checker
stipulates some requirements of the credentials it can check by
specifying a credentialInterfaces attribute, which is a list of
interfaces.  Credentials passed to its requestAvatarId method must
implement one of those interfaces.




For the most part, these things will just check usernames and passwords
and produce the username as the result, but hopefully we will be seeing
some public-key, challenge-response, and certificate based credential
checker mechanisms soon.




A credential checker should raise an error if it cannot authenticate
the user, and return ``twisted.cred.checkers.ANONYMOUS`` 
for anonymous access.

    



The Credentials
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Oddly enough, this represents some credentials that the user presents.
Usually this will just be a small static blob of data, but in some
cases it will actually be an object connected to a network protocol.
For example, a username/password pair is static, but a
challenge/response server is an active state-machine that will require
several method calls in order to determine a result.




Twisted comes with a number of credentials interfaces and implementations
in the :api:`twisted.cred.credentials <twisted.cred.credentials>` module,
such as :api:`twisted.cred.credentials.IUsernamePassword <IUsernamePassword>` 
and :api:`twisted.cred.credentials.IUsernameHashedPassword <IUsernameHashedPassword>` .

    



The Realm
~~~~~~~~~


A realm is an interface which connects your universe of "business objects" to the authentication system.




:api:`twisted.cred.portal.IRealm <IRealm>` is another one-method interface:





- :api:`twisted.cred.portal.IRealm.requestAvatar <requestAvatar>` ``(avatarId, mind, *interfaces)`` 
  
  This method will typically be called from 'Portal.login'.  The avatarId
  is the one returned by a CredentialChecker.
  
  
  .. note::
     Note that ``avatarId``  must always be a string. In
     particular, do not use unicode strings. If internationalized support is needed,
     it is recommended to use UTF-8, and take care of decoding in the realm.  
  
  
  
  The important thing to realize about this method is that if it is being
  called, *the user has already authenticated* .  Therefore, if possible,
  the Realm should create a new user if one does not already exist
  whenever possible.  Of course, sometimes this will be impossible
  without more information, and that is the case that the interfaces
  argument is for.
  





Since requestAvatar should be called from a Deferred callback, it may
return a Deferred or a synchronous result.

    



The Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~



An avatar is a business logic object for a specific user. For POP3, it's
a mailbox, for a first-person-shooter it's the object that interacts with
the game, the actor as it were. Avatars are specific to an application,
and each avatar represents a single "user" .

    



The Mind
~~~~~~~~



As mentioned before, the mind is usually ``None`` , so you can skip this
bit if you want.




Masters of Perspective Broker already know this object as the ill-named "client object" .  There is no "mind" class, or even interface, but it
is an object which serves an important role - any notifications which are to be
relayed to an authenticated client are passed through a 'mind'. In addition, it
allows passing more information to the realm during login in addition to the
avatar ID.




The name may seem rather unusual, but considering that a Mind is
representative of the entity on the "other end" of a network connection
that is both receiving updates and issuing commands, I believe it is
appropriate.




Although many protocols will not use this, it serves an important role.
It is provided as an argument both to the Portal and to the Realm,
although a CredentialChecker should interact with a client program
exclusively through a Credentials instance.




Unlike the original Perspective Broker "client object" , a Mind's
implementation is most often dictated by the protocol that is
connecting rather than the Realm.  A Realm which requires a particular
interface to issue notifications will need to wrap the Protocol's mind
implementation with an adapter in order to get one that conforms to its
expected interface - however, Perspective Broker will likely continue
to use the model where the client object has a pre-specified remote
interface.




(If you don't quite understand this, it's fine.  It's hard to explain,
and it's not used in simple usages of cred, so feel free to pass None
until you find yourself requiring something like this.)

    



Responsibilities
----------------


    

Server protocol implementation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The protocol implementor should define the interface the avatar should implement,
and design the protocol to have a portal attached. When a user logs in using the
protocol, a credential object is created, passed to the portal, and an avatar
with the appropriate interface is requested. When the user logs out or the protocol
is disconnected, the avatar should be logged out.




The protocol designer should not hardcode how users are authenticated or the
realm implemented. For example, a POP3 protocol implementation would require a portal whose
realm returns avatars implementing IMailbox and whose credential checker accepts
username/password credentials, but that is all. Here's a sketch of how the code
might look - note that USER and PASS are the protocol commands used to login, and
the DELE command can only be used after you are logged in:





:download:`pop3_server.py <listings/cred/pop3_server.py>`

.. literalinclude:: listings/cred/pop3_server.py



Application implementation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The application developer can implement realms and credential checkers. For example,
they might implement a realm that returns IMailbox implementing avatars, using MySQL
for storage, or perhaps a credential checker that uses LDAP for authentication.
In the following example, the Realm for a simple remote object service (using
Twisted's Perspective Broker protocol) is implemented:





.. code-block:: python

    
    from twisted.spread import pb
    from twisted.cred.portal import IRealm
    
    class SimplePerspective(pb.Avatar):
    
        def perspective_echo(self, text):
            print 'echoing',text
            return text
    
        def logout(self):
            print self, "logged out"
    
    
    class SimpleRealm:
        implements(IRealm)
    
        def requestAvatar(self, avatarId, mind, *interfaces):
            if pb.IPerspective in interfaces:
                avatar = SimplePerspective()
                return pb.IPerspective, avatar, avatar.logout
            else:
                raise NotImplementedError("no interface")



   

Deployment
~~~~~~~~~~



Deployment involves tying together a protocol, an appropriate realm and a credential
checker. For example, a POP3 server can be constructed by attaching to it a portal
that wraps the MySQL-based realm and an /etc/passwd credential checker, or perhaps
the LDAP credential checker if that is more useful. The following example shows
how the SimpleRealm in the previous example is deployed using an in-memory credential checker:





.. code-block:: python

    
    from twisted.spread import pb
    from twisted.internet import reactor
    from twisted.cred.portal import Portal
    from twisted.cred.checkers import InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse
    
    portal = Portal(SimpleRealm())
    checker = InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse()
    checker.addUser("guest", "password")
    portal.registerChecker(checker)
    reactor.listenTCP(9986, pb.PBServerFactory(portal))
    reactor.run()



   

Cred plugins
------------


   

Authentication with cred plugins
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Cred offers a plugin architecture for authentication methods. The
primary API for this architecture is the command-line; the plugins are
meant to be specified by the end-user when deploying a TAP (twistd
plugin).




For more information on writing a twistd plugin and using cred
plugins for your application, please refer to the :doc:`Writing a twistd plugin <tap>` document.

   



Building a cred plugin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



To build a plugin for cred, you should first define an ``authType`` , a short one-word string that defines
your plugin to the command-line. Once you have this, the convention is
to create a file named ``myapp_plugins.py`` in the :api:`twisted.plugins <twisted.plugins>` module path. 




Below is an example file structure for an application that defines
such a plugin: 





- MyApplication/
  
  
  
  - setup.py
  - myapp/
  
  
  
    - __init__.py
    - cred.py
    - server.py
  
  
  
  - twisted/
  
  
  
    - plugins/
  
  
  
      - myapp_plugins.py
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  






Once you have created this structure within your application, you can
create the code for your cred plugin by building a factory class which
implements :api:`twisted.cred.strcred.ICheckerFactory <ICheckerFactory>` .
These factory classes should not consist of a tremendous amount of
code. Most of the real application logic should reside in the cred
checker itself. (For help on building those, scroll up.)





The core purpose of the CheckerFactory is to translate an ``argstring`` , which is passed on the command line,
into a suitable set of initialization parameters for a Checker
class. In most cases this should be little more than constructing a
dictionary or a tuple of arguments, then passing them along to a new
checker instance.





.. code-block:: python

    
    from zope.interface import implements
    
    from twisted import plugin
    from twisted.cred.strcred import ICheckerFactory
    from myapp.cred import SpecialChecker
    
    class SpecialCheckerFactory(object):
        """
        A checker factory for a specialized (fictional) API.
        """
        # The class needs to implement both of these interfaces
        # for the plugin system to find our factory.
        implements(ICheckerFactory, plugin.IPlugin)
    
        # This tells AuthOptionsMixin how to find this factory.
        authType = "special"
    
        # This is a one-line explanation of what arguments, if any,
        # your particular cred plugin requires at the command-line.
        argStringFormat = "A colon-separated key=value list."
    
        # This help text can be multiple lines. It will be displayed
        # when someone uses the "--help-auth-type special" command.
        authHelp = """Some help text goes here ..."""
    
        # This will be called once per command-line.
        def generateChecker(self, argstring=""):
            argdict = dict((x.split('=') for x in argstring.split(':')))
            return SpecialChecker(**argdict)
    
    # We need to instantiate our class for the plugin to work.
    theSpecialCheckerFactory = SpecialCheckerFactory()




For more information on how your plugin can be used in your
application (and by other application developers), please see the :doc:`Writing a twistd plugin <tap>` document.





Conclusion
----------



After reading through this tutorial, you should be able to




- Understand how the cred architecture applies to your application
- Integrate your application with cred's object model
- Deploy an application that uses cred for authentication
- Allow your users to use command-line authentication plugins




