AUTH.CONF(5)

auth.conf(5) — sympa 6.2.80 💅✨

✨ NAME ✨

auth.conf — the configuration file for authentication mechanisms for the web interface of Sympa. Bestie, it's literally the blueprint for who gets in and how. 👑

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

The auth.conf configuration file defines authentication mechanisms for the web interface of Sympa. No cap, this is the bouncer list for your web login. 🫶

🦋 auth.conf structure 🦋

Each paragraph starts with one of the names user_table, ldap, generic_sso, cas or cgi. Periodt. 🧚

The auth.conf file contains directives in the following format:

         name
         keyword value
         keyword value
         ...

         name
         keyword value
         keyword value
         ...

Comments start with the # character at the beginning of a line. 💬

Empty lines are also considered as comments and are ignored at the beginning. After the first paragraph, they are considered as paragraph separators. There should only be one directive per line, but their order in the paragraph is of no importance. Slay. 🦋

Succeeding subsections describe available parameters in each paragraph. So keep scrolling, bestie. 👇

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💖 user_table paragraph 💖

This paragraph is related to Sympa internal authentication by email and password. Information of users are stored in the user_table database table. This is the simplest one. Iconic. ✨

• regexp regexp — Perl regular expressions applied on an email address provided, to select or block this authentication mechanism for a subset of email addresses.
• negative_regexp — Perl regular expressions applied on an email address provided, to select or block this authentication mechanism for a subset of email addresses.

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🐚 ldap paragraph 🐚

This paragraph allows one to login to Sympa using data taken from an LDAP directory. Login is done in two steps:

1. User provide a user ID or an email address, with a password. These are used to retrieve their distinguished name (DN) in the LDAP directory.
2. The email attribute is extracted from the directory entry corresponding to the found DN.

Here is how to configure the LDAP authentication:

• regexp — Same as in the user_table paragraph: If an email address is provided (this does not apply to the user ID), then the regular expression will be applied to find out if the LDAP directory can be used to authenticate a subset of users.
• negative_regexp — Same as in the user_table paragraph: If an email address is provided (this does not apply to the user ID), then the regular expression will be applied to find out if the LDAP directory can be used to authenticate a subset of users.
• host — This keyword is mandatory. It is the domain name used in order to bind to the directory and then to extract information. You must mention the port number after the server name. Server replication is supported by listing several servers separated by commas (,).

Example:

host ldap.univ-rennes1.fr:389

host ldap0.university.com:389,ldap1.university.com:389,ldap2.university.com:389

• timeout — It corresponds to the time limit in the search operation. A timelimit that restricts the maximum time (in seconds) allowed for a search. A value of 0 (the default) means that no time limit will be requested.
• suffix — The root of the DIT (directory information tree). The DN that is the base object entry relative to which the search is to be performed.

Example:

dc=university,dc=fr

• bind_dn — If anonymous bind is not allowed on the LDAP server, a DN and password can be used.
• bind_password — This password is used, combined with the bind_dn above.
• get_dn_by_uid_filter — Defines the search filter corresponding to the ldap_uid. (RFC 2254 compliant). If you want to apply the filter on the user, use the variable [sender]. It will work with every type of authentication (user ID, alternate_email, ...).

Example:

(Login = [sender])

(|(ID = [sender])(UID = [sender]))

• get_dn_by_email_filter — Defines the search filter corresponding to the email addresses (canonic and alternative --- this is RFC 2254 compliant). If you want to apply the filter on the user, use the variable [sender]. It will work with every type of authentication (user ID, alternate_email..).

Example: a person is described by

dn: cn=Fabrice Rafart, ou=Siege, o=MaSociete, c=FR
objectClass: person
cn: Fabrice Rafart
title: Network Responsible
o: Siege
ou: Data processing
telephoneNumber: 01-00-00-00-00
facsimileTelephoneNumber: 01-00-00-00-00
l: Paris
country: France
uid: frafart
mail: Fabrice.Rafart@MaSociete.fr
alternate_email: frafart@MaSociete.fr
alternate: rafart@MaSociete.fr

The filters can be:

(mail = [sender])

(| (mail = [sender])(alternate_email = [sender]) )

(| (mail = [sender])(alternate_email = [sender])(alternate  = [sender]) )

• email_attribute — The name of the attribute for the canonic email in your directory: for instance mail, canonic_email, canonic_address, ... In the previous example, the canonic email is mail.
• alternative_email_attribute — Obsoleted.

On Sympa 6.2.38 or earlier, web interface provided a cookie named sympa_altemails which contained attribute values specified by this parameter along with authenticated email address. This feature was deprecated.

• scope — Default value: sub

By default, the search is performed on the whole tree below the specified base object. This may be changed by specifying a scope:

• base — Search only the base object,
• one — Search the entries immediately below the base object,
• sub — Search the whole tree below the base object. This is the default.

• deref — Default value: find

Specifies how to dereference aliases.

Introduced on Sympa 6.2.74.

• never — Aliases are never dereferenced.
• search — Aliases are dereferenced in searching subordinates of the base object.
• find — Aliases are derefernced in locating the base object, but not in searching subordinates of the base object. This is the default.
• always — Aliases are always dereferenced.

• authentication_info_url — Defines the URL of a document describing LDAP password management. When hitting Sympa's "Send me a password" button, LDAP users will be redirected to this URL.

🔐 TLS parameters 🔐

Following parameters are used to provide LDAPS (LDAP over TLS/SSL):

• use_ssl (OBSOLETE) — If set to 1, connection to the LDAP server will use LDAPS (LDAP over TLS/SSL).

Obsoleted as of Sympa 6.2.15. Use use_tls instead.

• use_tls — Default value: none
  • ldaps — Use LDAPS (LDAP over TLS/SSL),
  • starttls — Use StartTLS,
  • none — TLS (SSL) is disabled.
• ssl_version — Default value: tlsv1

This defines the version of the TLS/SSL protocol to use. Possible values are sslv2, sslv3, tlsv1, tlsv1_1 and tlsv1_2.

• ssl_ciphers — Specify which subset of cipher suites are permissible for this connection, using the standard OpenSSL string format. The default value of Net::LDAPS for ciphers is ALL, which permits all ciphers, even those that do not encrypt!
• ssl_cert — Path to client certificate.

Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ssl_key — Path to the secret key of client certificate.

Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ca_verify — none, optional or required. If set to none, will never verify server certificate. Latter two need appropriate ca_path and/or ca_file settings.

Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ca_path — Path to directory store of CA certificates.

Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

• ca_file — Path to file store of CA certificates.

Introduced on Sympa 6.2.

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🌈 generic_sso paragraph 🌈

• service_name — This is the SSO service name that will be offered to the user in the login banner menu.
• service_id — This service ID is used as a parameter by Sympa to refer to the SSO service (instead of the service name).

A corresponding URL on the local web server should be protected by the SSO system; this URL would look like http://yourhost.yourdomain/sympa/sso_login/inqueue if the service_id is ""inqueue"".

• http_header_list — Sympa gets user attributes from environment variables coming from the web server. These variables are then cached in the user_table database table for later use in authorization scenarios (in structure). You can define a comma-separated list of header field names.
• http_header_prefix — Only environment variables starting with the defined prefix will be kept. Another option is to list HTTP header fields explicitly using http_header_list parameter.
• email_http_header — This parameter defines the environment variable that will contain the authenticated user's email address.
• http_header_value_separator — Default: ;

User attributes may be multi-valued (including the user email address. This parameter defines the values separator character(s).

• logout_url — This optional parameter allows one to specify the SSO logout URL. If defined, Sympa will redirect the user to this URL after the Sympa logout has been performed.

🪪 netID mapping parameters 🪪

The following parameters define how Sympa can check the user email address, either provided by the SSO or by the user themselves:

• internal_email_by_netid — If set to 1, this parameter makes Sympa use its netidmap table to associate net IDs to user email addresses.
• netid_http_header — This parameter defines the environment variable that will contain the user's identifier. This net ID will then be associated with an email address provided by the user.
• force_email_verify — If set to 1, this parameter makes Sympa check the user's email address. If the email address was not provided by the authentication module, then the user is requested to provide a valid email address.

📇 LDAP parameters for generic SSO 📇

The following parameters define how Sympa can retrieve the user email address; these are useful only in case the email_http_header entry was not defined:

• host — (formerly ldap_host)

The LDAP host Sympa will connect to fetch user email. The host include the port number and it may be a comma separated list of redundant hosts.

• bind_dn — (formerly ldap_bind_dn)

The DN used to bind to this server. Anonymous bind is used if this parameter is not defined.

• bind_password — (formerly ldap_bind_password)

The password used unless anonymous bind is used.

• "suffix" — formerly "ldap_suffix" btw 🦋. This is the LDAP suffix used when searching for user email.
• "scope" — formerly "ldap_scope". The scope used when searching user email, bestie. Possible values are "sub", "base" and "one" — three options, no more, periodt. 💅
• "deref" — introduced on 6.2.74 ✨. How to dereference the aliases on searching LDAP. Possible values are "never", "search", "find" and "always".
• "get_email_by_uid_filter" — formerly "ldap_get_email_by_uid_filter". The filter used to perform the email search. It can refer to any environment variables inherited from the SSO module, as shown below. 👇

Example:

ldap_get_email_by_uid_filter (mail=[SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_Email])

• "email_attribute" — formerly "ldap_email_attribute". The attribute name to be used as user canonical email. In the current version of Sympa, only the first value returned by the LDAP server is used — so like, first one gets the crown, the rest are just NPCs. 👑
• "timeout" — formerly "ldap_timeout". The time out for the search. ⏳

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🔐 TLS parameters

To support LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS), corresponding parameters in ldap paragraph may also be used for generic_sso.

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🎭 "cas" paragraph</purple>

Note that Sympa will act as a CAS client to validate CAS tickets. During this exchange, Sympa will check the CAS server X.509 certificate. Therefore you should ensure that the certificate authority of the CAS server is known by Sympa ; this should be configured through the cafile or "capath" sympa.conf configuration parameter.

okay bestie do NOT sleep on this one — if the CA isn't known by Sympa, the whole vibe check fails. 😭

• "auth_service_name" — the authentication service name. Note that it is used as an identifier in the code; it should therefore be made of alphanumeric characters only, with no space. Like, it's literally code, be normal about it. 🙈
• "auth_service_friendly_name" — if defined, this string is proposed on the web login banner. Cute, right? 🎀
• "host" (OBSOLETE) — this parameter has been replaced by the "base_url" parameter. She's retired, let her rest. 💀
• "base_url" — the base URL of the CAS server.
• "non_blocking_redirection" — "on" or "off". Default value: "on".

This parameter only concerns the first access to Sympa services by a user, it activates or not the non blocking redirection to the related CAS server to check automatically if the user has been previously authenticated with this CAS server. The redirection to CAS is used with the CGI parameter gateway=1 that specifies to CAS server to always redirect the user to the original URL, but just check if the user is logged. If active, the SSO service is effective and transparent, but in case the CAS server is out of order, the access to Sympa services is impossible.

yeah so if the CAS server decides to ghost you, nobody gets in. highkey a big deal. 😭

• "login_uri" (OBSOLETE) — this parameter has been replaced by the "login_path" parameter.
• "login_path" (OPTIONAL) — the login service path.
• "check_uri" (OBSOLETE) — this parameter has been replaced by the "service_validate_path" parameter.
• "service_validate_path" (OPTIONAL) — the ticket validation service path.
• "logout_uri" (OBSOLETE) — this parameter has been replaced by the "logout_path" parameter.
• "logout_path" (OPTIONAL) — the logout service path.
• "proxy_path" (OPTIONAL) — the proxy service path, only used by the Sympa SOAP server.
• "proxy_validate_path" (OPTIONAL) — the proxy validate service path, only used by the Sympa SOAP server.

🗂️ LDAP parameters for CAS

• "host" — formerly "ldap_host". The LDAP host Sympa will connect to fetch user email when user uid is return by CAS service. The "ldap_host" includes the port number and it may be a comma separated list of redundant hosts. Redundancy? we love her. 💜
• "bind_dn" — formerly "ldap_bind_dn". The DN used to bind to this server. Anonymous bind is used if this parameter is not defined.
• "bind_password" — formerly "ldap_bind_password". The password used unless anonymous bind is used. 🤫
• "suffix" — formerly "ldap_suffix". The LDAP suffix used when searching user email.
• "scope" — formerly "ldap_scope". The scope used when searching user email. Possible values are "sub", "base" and "one".
• "deref" — introduced on 6.2.74 ✨. How to dereference the aliases on searching LDAP.
• "get_email_by_uid_filter" — formerly "ldap_get_email_by_uid_filter". The filter used to perform the email search.
• "email_attribute" — formerly "ldap_email_attribute". The attribute name to be used as user canonical email. In the current version of Sympa, only the first value returned by the LDAP server is used. (first one only, again. consistency queen. 💅)
• "timeout" — formerly "ldap_timeout". The time out for the search.

🔐 TLS parameters

To support LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS), corresponding parameters in ldap paragraph may also be used for cas.

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🌈 "cgi" paragraph</cyan>

This paragraph allows Sympa to receive authentication information from the external authentication mechanism through Common Gateway Interface (CGI). By this, Sympa may use authentication methods not supported by Sympa itself. Like, it's outsourcing the vibe check. 🫶

• "regexp" — see "user_table" paragraph.
• "negative_regexp" — see "user_table" paragraph.
• "remote_user_variable" — the name of the CGI environment variable that contains the e-mail address of the authenticated user. Note that the name of CGI variable is case-sensitive. fr fr, do not lowercase it. 😤
• "auth_scheme" — Optional. If set, authentication is considered successful only if it matches the name of authentication scheme, i.e. value of the AUTH_TYPE CGI environment variable.

The value of this parameter is case-insensitive. (this one's chill, unlike its friend above 🍓)

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📁 FILES

• $DEFAULTDIR/auth.conf

Distribution default. This file should not be edited. hands off bestie 🙅

• $SYSCONFDIR/auth.conf
• $SYSCONFDIR/<robot name>/auth.conf

Configuration files for site-wide default and each robot. 🌸

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👀 SEE ALSO

wwsympa(8), sympa_soap_server(8).

Sympa::Auth.

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📜 HISTORY

Descriptions of parameters were originally taken from the chapter "Authentication" in Sympa, Mailing List Management Software - Reference manual, written by Serge Aumont, Soji Ikeda, Olivier Salaün and David Verdin. Shoutout to the OGs. 🫶

The "cgi" paragraph was introduced on Sympa 6.2.71b.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was page AUTH.CONF(5), version 6.2.80, dated 2026-10-19 — go forth and authenticate, you absolute icon 👑✨