I have a MariaDB instance which is using PAM to auth against Active Directory. Is remote authentication with this service secure? I ran a Wireshark trace during the auth process, and passwords are not sent in the clear, but how secure is the hashed password?
1 Answer
AFAIK PAM needs to receive the password as clear text to be able to use various backends, so either the passwords have to be send as clear text or in a revertable, not secure way.
See also: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-security-excerpt/5.5/en/pam-authentication-plugin.html