About RADIUS
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA or Triple A) management for users who connect and use a network service.
Summary
- originally developed by Livingston Enterprises
- provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)
- governed by the IETF (RFC 2865 and more)
- widely implemented and used
- can suffer degraded performance and lost data when used in large scale systems
- is an “old” protocol that lives on. The IETF’s AAA working group may develop a successor protocol (possibly diameter?).
Open Source Implementations
- FreeRADIUS (wikipedia) - most popular server
- pyrad - python
- radius gems - ruby-toolbox
- radius gems - rubygems
Credits and References
- RADIUS - wikipedia
- RFC 2865 - IETF specification, obsoletes RFC 2138
- RFC 6733 Diameter Base Protocol
- RADIUS-Clients - freeradius
- Authenticate Radius user with Ruby