Factotum (software)

This article is about the software. For other uses, see Factotum (disambiguation).

auth/fgui adding a key to factotum

Factotum is a password management and authentication protocol negotiation virtual file system for Plan 9 from Bell Labs. When a program wants to authenticate to a service, it requests a key from Factotum. If Factotum does not have the key, it requests it from the users either via the terminal window or auth/fgui which is then stored in volatile memory. Factotum then authenticates to the service on behalf of the program. For long-term storage, keys are usually stored in secstore or in an encrypted file. ^{[1] [2]}

Factotum was introduced in August 2002, at that year's USENIX in Berkeley, California. ^{[3] [4]}

See also

• List of password managers

References

1. Edwards, John (2004). Telecosmos: The Next Great Telecom Revolution. Wiley. pp. 167–171. ISBN   9780471690689 – via Google Books.
2. Fisher, Dennis (August 12, 2002). "Bell Labs Takes Stab at True Single Sign-On". eWeek. Ziff-Davis – via Gale.
3. Costello, Sam (August 8, 2002). "Bell Labs shows off new password, sign-on tools". InfoWorld. IDG Communications – via Gale.
4. Rapoza, Jim (August 12, 2002). "Factotum Bridges Access Gaps". eWeek. Ziff-Davis – via Gale.

External links

• factotum(4) in Plan 9 Programmer's Manual, Volume 1.
• factotum(4) in 9front.
• Security in Plan 9 Archived 2007-03-02 at the Wayback Machine in Plan 9 Programmer's Manual, Volume 2.