Presence/absence of the keytab

[Richard E. Silverman]

>>>>> "SL" == Scott Lowe <slowe at eplus.com> writes:

    SL> Yesterday, however, I was able to successfully authenticate via
    SL> Kerberos from VMware ESX Server 2.5.3 (the console operating
    SL> system is Linux-based) *without* generating a keytab.  This seems
    SL> to fly in the face of all the information and instructions I've
    SL> seen.

    SL> So, I'm curious...any thoughts as to why this worked?

A keytab is needed for a host on which a kerberized service runs; it holds
the service princpal's secret key, which the service software needs.

You don't need anything special on a host to allow someone to "kinit" on
it.  The only secret needed is your password.

-- 
  Richard Silverman
  res at qoxp.net