keylogin Command

Purpose

Decrypts and stores the user's secret key.

Syntax

keylogin [-r]

Description

The keylogin command prompts users for their passwords. Then, the keylogin program decrypts the user's secret key, which is stored in the /etc/publickey file. The decrypted key is then stored by the local keyserv daemon to be used by any secure Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service, such as the Network File System (NFS).

The decrypted key given to the local keyserv daemon may eventually reach a time out and become invalid for that particular login session. The user can use the keylogin command again to refresh the key held by the keyserv daemon.

Flags

Item Description
-r Writes unencrypted secret key into a key file. Use the -r flag to store the root user's key in /etc/.rootkey on a host. Using this command, processes can run as a superuser task to issue authenticated requests. Therefore, processes do not need to explicitly run the keylogin command as a superuser task at system startup time.

Files

Item Description
/etc/publickey Contains public or secret keys for NIS maps.