# MIT Kerberos Documentation

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# .k5login

## DESCRIPTION

The .k5login file, which resides in a user’s home directory, contains a list of the Kerberos principals. Anyone with valid tickets for a principal in the file is allowed host access with the UID of the user in whose home directory the file resides. One common use is to place a .k5login file in root’s home directory, thereby granting system administrators remote root access to the host via Kerberos.

## EXAMPLES

Suppose the user `alice` had a .k5login file in her home directory containing just the following line:

    bob@FOOBAR.ORG

This would allow `bob` to use Kerberos network applications, such as ssh(1), to access `alice`’s account, using `bob`’s Kerberos tickets. In a default configuration (with k5login_authoritative set to true in krb5.conf), this .k5login file would not let `alice` use those network applications to access her account, since she is not listed! With no .k5login file, or with k5login_authoritative set to false, a default rule would permit the principal `alice` in the machine’s default realm to access the `alice` account.

Let us further suppose that `alice` is a system administrator. Alice and the other system administrators would have their principals in root’s .k5login file on each host:

    alice@BLEEP.COM

    joeadmin/root@BLEEP.COM

This would allow either system administrator to log in to these hosts using their Kerberos tickets instead of having to type the root password. Note that because `bob` retains the Kerberos tickets for his own principal, `bob@FOOBAR.ORG`, he would not have any of the privileges that require `alice`’s tickets, such as root access to any of the site’s hosts, or the ability to change `alice`’s password.

## SEE ALSO

kerberos(1)