Sam Hartman wrote:
>     Luke> Isn't then the dictionary just another configuration file?
> Yes.  For that use it's probably OK.  However it requires you get the
> dictionary set up correctly even if your application understands what
> RADIUS attribute it wants.

  If the application understands the attributes it wants, the
dictionaries can be statically defined.

  The dictionaries are mainly used by *administrators* to create
authorization policies.  "If I see FOO with value BAR, do something".
The definition of FOO is in the dictionary, which maps bytes in the
RADIUS packet to "data type for BAR".  The "do something" part is
controlled by the administrator, and can be pretty much anything from
"run a shell script" to "return other attributes".

  RADIUS clients have traditionally been very limited.  They request a
particular kind of authorization/authentication.  They receive either a
NAK or an ACK.  The ACK contains specific details about the requested
authorization, such as IP address assignment.

  If the ACK contains authorizations for things the client *didn't* ask
for, the client ignores them, because the authorizations are
inappropriate.  Even if the client understands the attributes, it
doesn't know what to do with them, because they don't fit within an
existing authorization framework.

  Alan DeKok.
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