[wp-hackers] Wordpress User Authentication

[Ryan Boren]

On Fri, 2004-06-18 at 15:35, Joseph Scott wrote:
> On Jun 18, 2004, at 12:38 PM, Alex King wrote:
> 
> > LDAP may be the way to go for this, though I'm not sure how many 
> > places offer an LDAP server or how hard it is to install/configure.
> 
> 	LDAP is a good solution for this type of problem, but I think looking 
> at that right now is one layer too deep
> 
> >> It'd be nice to be able to include one PHP file from WP that had API
> >> access. So, you could run a function like
> >> check_user_auth($user, $pass);
> 
> 	For something that could be used in so many different setups I think 
> this type of approach is perfect for WordPress.  Off the top of my head 
> I would consider something like this:
> 
> - Have a function that takes the name of your chosen authentication 
> function, perhaps in wp-config.php, something like this:
> 	
> 	wp_auth_func_name('ldap_auth');
> 
> - Inside WordPress the function wp_auth_func_name would use the 
> specified function to actually perform the authentication.  If no name 
> is given then use a default function that would basically do what 
> WordPress does right now.
> 
> - Develop an API for authentication functions, as noted above would 
> probably only need to two args, the username and password.  Return true 
> for an ok auth, false for failure?
> 
> - Include a few functions for a couple of different auth mechanisms, 
> along with making it easy for others to write their own.
> 
> 	Basically create a plugin authentication arrangement.  This would be 
> flexible for authentication, but it doesn't address some of the other 
> concerns, like if you having to create the user in WordPress first.  
> I'm not sure if it's worthwhile, but we could great a similar plugin 
> system for listing users and their info.  That would be more work than 
> just doing authentication though.

There are several PHP PAM modules out there we could look at for
inspiration, although PAM itself might be overkill.  A simple version
using filter priorities to create an authentication stack wouldn't be
too hard.

Ryan

> --
> Joseph Scott
> http://joseph.randomnetworks.com/
> 
> 
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