In Oracle Linux, authentication is profile-based. Each profile uses different mechanisms to authenticate system access.

The following profiles are installed with Oracle Linux:

• sssd: Uses the System Security Services Daemon (sssd) service to perform system authentication. The sssd service is a client for many centralized directory and authentication providers such as Kerberos, Active Directory, FreeIPA, and LDAP.

• winbind: Uses the winbind service to perform system authentication. The winbind service is a client-side service that resolves user and group information on a Windows server, and lets Oracle Linux understand Windows users and groups.

• local: Uses system files to perform system authentication for local users. This is the default authentication profile in Oracle Linux 10.

You can adapt these existing profiles to suit the authentication needs of the organization. For example, you can configure the sssd profile to use different backend directory services.

You can also use profiles supplied by external vendors, or create custom profiles to enforce specific authentication requirements.