Networks, Authentication and Unix?

concerned-with-security asks: "A document about security on Linux will probably mention, among other things: shadow passwords, (open)ssh, PAM, Kerberos, NIS/NIS+ and PGP(GPG), but I have not yet found one that describes how all of these interrelate. Some of these programs seem to overlap; which would be preferred over others in various situations? Do you need different keys for the programs that use encryption, or does each program need its own key? If you did not want to use a commertial Linux distribution and chose instead to make your own, what combination of these programs would provide the most security on a small LAN with common user accounts on each machine?"

NIS/NIS+

[lw54]

By using NIS/NIS+, you won't have common user accounts on each machine. Each machine will log into a central server.

Read this book

[NevarMore]

I read "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier last summer and it does a damn good job of explaing the underlying theories of what you want to do. Off the top of my head I can tell you for certain that theres an entire chapter on PGP and Kerberos. Best of all it should help you decide what you wnat kind/level of security you need. The book doesn't go into specific implementations but most of that information comes from whatever software packages you choose to use.