GNU SASL

GNU SASL is a handy tool that helps with user authentication and security. It's based on the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) framework. You'll find it being used by network servers like IMAP and SMTP to ask clients for authentication, and also by clients to verify themselves against servers.

What's Inside GNU SASL?

So, what does GNU SASL include? Well, it has a library called libgsasl, a command line utility named gsasl, and even a manual to help you out. It supports various SASL mechanisms, including CRAM-MD5, EXTERNAL, ANONYMOUS, PLAIN, SECURID, DIGEST-MD5, GSSAPI, LOGIN, and NTLM.

Portability and Flexibility

This library is super portable because it doesn't handle network communication itself. Instead, it lets the calling application take care of that. The cool part? It's flexible with its authorization infrastructure! It uses callbacks to check if a user has the right permissions.

Lightweight Design

The entire GNU SASL library is written in pure ANSI C89 so it can run on embedded systems or other limited platforms. Even with full support for mechanisms like ANONYMOUS and PLAIN, the whole thing takes up less than 60kb on an Intel x86 platform. That's pretty lightweight!

A Wide Range of Compatibility

You'll be happy to know that GNU SASL was made for GNU/Linux but works on over 20 different platforms! This includes most major Unix types and Windows devices too. It can even run on gadgets like iPAQ handhelds or big S/390 mainframes.

Licensing Information

The core library of GNU SASL and most of its mechanisms are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. You can get it separately as the libgsasl package. The command line app along with self-test features are under the GNU General Public License. Plus, when you download the gsasl package, you get both parts in one go—no need to hunt down two separate installations!

If you're interested in trying out GNU SASL for yourself, check out this link: Download here!