[FreeNX-kNX] FreeNX, SSH, and su

[dewey hylton]

> Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 03:07:04 -0400
> From: Pat Regan <thehead at patshead.com>
> Subject: [FreeNX-kNX] FreeNX, SSH, and su
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I have been using FreeNX for quite a few months now.  The other day
> though, I decided to drop a copy on a machine whose SSH server only
> allows public key authentication.  This did not work out well at all
> until I found the ENABLE_SU_AUTHENTICATION option in node.conf.
> 
> I have two questions.  Besides RedHat/Fedora requiring the nx user to be
> in the wheel group, is there any other reason why this is not the default?
> 
> Also, are there any plans to allow "real" public key authentication when
> logging into a FreeNX server?
> 
> Thanks a lot, you guys are doing excellent work.
> 
> Pat

pat, fwiw i have 6 customers all using freenx (on freebsd) and in each case the
ssh server only allows pk auth. this works perfectly well without su_auth. if
the users are setup via "nxserver --adduser" then freenx copies its own
self-generated keys to the user's authorized keys file, allowing nx to login as
said user without passwords. i've never had a problem using this method.