Security mechanism independence in ONC RPC

Generic Security Services API (GSS-API) [4] provides a framework for security services. It allows source level portability. It allows applications to run independently of the underlying security mechanisms and technologies. To provide security mechanism independence in ONC RPC [1, 2, 3], this paper proposes a new security flavor, RPCSEC_GSS. RPCSEC_GSS incorporates services offered by the GSS-API into ONC RPC. Using the programming interface for the RPCSEC_GSS flavor, ONC RPC applications can specify a GSS-API security mechanism to be used with an RPC session, and also request security services, such as integrity and privacy.