How do I configure NTLM authentication in Firefox on Linux?

Question

Our IT department have NTLM deployed through the intranet servers.

I've set network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris value in Firefox on some of the Windows machines and that works fine.

However setting it in Firefox on the Linux machines is not working.

This doesn't surprise me at all, I've no notion of where Firefox on Linux is supposed to get the authentication details from.

So how is this process supposed to work? what bits of config / infrastructure am I missing?

Solution

You could try using Kerberos for authenticating against Windows Active directory servers. After you have installed kerberos client programs (On Debian, the package krb5-user). Use the command

kinit [email protected]

It would ask for your password. And create a ticket cache file (named something like /tmp/krb5cc_uid). In firefox, visit about:config, look for the key "network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris" and add the services (or domain suffixes) you want firefox to send the authentication credentials for. Refreshing the intranet page should get you in.

The ticket/credential cache would expire at some time set by the domain admins. Within a grace period you could renew it using `kinit -R' without having to type your password again.

The command `klist' would list some more information about your ticket/cache.

If you want to clear the cached credentials use `kdestroy'.