[jira] [Created] (HADOOP-8758) Support for pluggable token implementations

["Kan Zhang (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Kan Zhang created HADOOP-8758:
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             Summary: Support for pluggable token implementations
                 Key: HADOOP-8758
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-8758
             Project: Hadoop Common
          Issue Type: Improvement
          Components: ipc, security
            Reporter: Kan Zhang
            Assignee: Kan Zhang


Variants of the delegation token mechanism have been employed by different Hadoop services (NN, JT, RM, etc) to re-authenticate a previously Kerberos-authenticated client. While existing delegation token mechanism compliments Kerberos well, it doesn't necessarily have to be coupled with Kerberos. In principle, delegation tokens can be coupled with any authentication mechanism that bootstraps security. In particular, it can be coupled with other token implementations that use the same DIGEST-MD5 auth method. For example, a token can be pre-generated in an out-of-band manner and configured as a shared secret key between NN and JT to allow JT to make initial authentication to NN. This simple example doesn't deal with token renewal etc, but it helps to illustrate the point that if we can support multiple pluggable token implementations, it opens up the possibility for different users to plug in the token implementation of their choice to bootstrap security. Such token based mechanism has advantages over Kerberos in that 1) it doesn't require Kerberos infrastructure, 2) it leverages existing SASL DIGEST-MD5 auth method and doesn't require adding a new RPC auth method.


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