Cred Table

Network Information Services (NIS and NIS+) Guide

Cred Table

The cred table stores credential information about NIS+ principals. Each domain has one cred table, which stores the credential information of client workstations that belong to that domain and client users who are allowed to log into them. (In other words, the principals of that domain.) The cred tables are located in their domains' org_dir subdirectory.

Attention: Do not link a cred table. Each org_dir directory should have its own cred table. Do not use a link to some other org_dir cred table.

The cred table has five columns:

Cred Table
NIS+ Principal Name	Authentication Type	Authentication Name	Public Data	Private Data
Principal name of a principal user	LOCAL	UID	GID list
Principal name of a principal user or workstation	DES	Secure RPC netname	Public key	Encrypted private key

The second column, authentication type, determines the types of values found in the other four columns.

LOCAL. If the authentication type is LOCAL, the other columns contain a principal user's name, UID, and GID; the last column is empty.
DES. If the authentication type is DES, the other columns contain a principal's name, Secure RPC netname, public key, and encrypted private key. These keys are used in conjunction with other information to encrypt and decrypt a DES credential.

See Administering NIS+ Credentials, for additional information on credentials and the cred table.