Custom user authentication

You can choose to use a user authentication mechanism other than the built-in MobiLink mechanism. The following are some reasons for using a custom user authentication mechanism:

To include integration with existing database user authentication schemes or external authentication mechanisms.
To supply custom features, such as minimum password length or password expiry, that do not exist in the built-in MobiLink mechanism.

There are three custom authentication tools:

mlsrv12 -zu+ option
authenticate_user script or authenticate_user_hashed script
authenticate_parameters script

The mlsrv12 -zu+ option allows you to control the automatic addition of users. For example, specify -zu+ to have all unrecognized MobiLink user names added to the ml_user table when they first synchronize. The -zu+ option is only needed for built-in MobiLink authentication.

The authenticate_user, authenticate_user_hashed, and authenticate_parameters scripts override the default MobiLink user authentication mechanism. Any user who successfully authenticates is automatically added to the ml_user table.

You can use the authenticate_user script to create custom authentication of user IDs and passwords. If this script exists, it is executed instead of the built-in password comparison. The script must return error codes to indicate the success or failure of the authentication.

There are several predefined scripts for the authenticate_user event that are installed with MobiLink. These make it easier for you to authenticate using LDAP, POP3, and IMAP servers. See Authenticating to external servers.

Use authenticate_parameters to create custom authentication that depends on values other than user IDs and passwords.

Custom user authentication

See also