5 summary: 'Authentication via external script/process'
11 Allow client authentication to be handled by an external script/process.
16 mod\_auth\_external depends on a Lua module called
17 [lpty](http://www.tset.de/lpty/). You can install it on many platforms
18 using [LuaRocks](http://luarocks.org/), for example:
20 sudo luarocks install lpty
22 Note: Earlier versions of the module did not depend on lpty. While using
23 the newer version is strongly recommended, you can find the [older
25 here](https://hg.prosody.im/prosody-modules/raw-file/50ee38e95e75/mod_auth_external/mod_auth_external.lua)
26 if you need it (revision of the repository).
31 As with all auth modules, there is no need to add this to
32 modules\_enabled. Simply add in the global section, or for the relevant
35 authentication = "external"
37 These options are specific to mod\_auth\_external:
39 -------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
40 external\_auth\_protocol May be "generic" or "ejabberd" (the latter for compatibility with ejabberd external auth scripts. Default is "generic".
41 external\_auth\_command The command/script to execute.
42 -------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 Two other options are also available, depending on whether the module is
45 running in 'blocking' or 'non-blocking' mode:
47 --------------------------- -------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
48 external\_auth\_timeout blocking The number of seconds to wait for a response from the auth process. Default is 5.
49 external\_auth\_processes non-blocking The number of concurrent processes to spawn. Default is 1, increase to handle high connection rates efficiently.
50 --------------------------- -------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
52 Blocking vs non-blocking
53 ------------------------
55 Non-blocking mode is experimental and is disabled by default.
57 Enable at your own risk if you fulfil these conditions:
59 - Running Prosody trunk ([nightly](http://prosody.im/nightly/) build
60 414+) or Prosody 0.11.x.
61 - [libevent](http://prosody.im/doc/libevent) is enabled in the config,
62 and LuaEvent is available.
63 - lpty (see installation above) is version 1.0.1 or later.
66 external_auth_blocking = false;
72 Prosody executes the given command/script, and sends it queries.
74 Your auth script should simply read a line from standard input, and
75 write the result to standard output. It must do this in a loop, until
76 there's nothing left to read. Prosody can keep sending more lines to the
77 script, with a command on each line.
79 Each command is one line, and the response is expected to be a single
80 line containing "0" for failure or "1" for success. Your script must
81 respond with "0" for anything it doesn't understand.
83 There are three commands used at the moment:
88 Check if a user's password is valid.
90 Example: `auth:username:example.com:abc123`
92 Note: The password can contain colons. Make sure to handle that.
97 Check if a user exists.
99 Example: `isuser:username:example.com`
104 Set a new password for the user. Implementing this is optional.
106 Example: `setpass:username:example.com:abc123`
108 Note: The password can contain colons. Make sure to handle that.
110 ejabberd compatibility
111 ---------------------
113 ejabberd implements a similar protocol. The main difference is that
114 Prosody's protocol is line-based, while ejabberd's is length-prefixed.
116 Add this to your config if you need to use an ejabberd auth script:
118 external_auth_protocol = "ejabberd"