User Authentication with IMAP, SMB, and FTP

Table of Contents

Introduction

You may configure additional user backends in ownCloud’s configuration file (config/config.php) using the following syntax:

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    0 => [
        "class"     => ...,
        "arguments" => [
            0 => ...
        ],
    ],
],
A non-blocking or correctly configured SELinux setup is needed for these backends to work, if SELinux is enabled on your server. Please refer to the SELinux configuration for further details.

Currently the External user support app (user_external), which is not enabled by default, provides three backends. These are:

See Installing and Managing Apps for more information.

IMAP

Provides authentication against IMAP servers.

Option Value/Description

Class

OC_User_IMAP.

Arguments

A mailbox string as defined
in the PHP documentation.

Dependency

PHP’s IMAP extension.
See Manual Installation on Linux for instructions on how to install it.

Example

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    0 => [
        "class"     => "OC_User_IMAP",
        "arguments" => [
            // The IMAP server to authenticate against
            '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}',
            // The domain to send email from
            'example.com'
        ],
    ],
],
The second arguments parameter ensures that only users from that domain are allowed to login. When set, after a successful login, the domain will be stripped from the email address and the rest used as an ownCloud username. For example, if the email address is guest.user@example.com, then guest.user will be the username used by ownCloud.

SMB

Provides authentication against Samba servers.

Option Value/Description

Class

OC_User_SMB

Arguments

The samba server to authenticate against.

Dependency

PECL’s smbclient extension or
smbclient.

Example

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    [
        "class"     => "OC_User_SMB",
        "arguments" => [
            'localhost'
        ],
    ],
],

FTP

Provides authentication against FTP servers.

Option Value/Description

Class

OC_User_FTP

Arguments

The FTP server to authenticate against.

Dependency

PHP’s FTP extension.
See Source Installation for instructions on how to install it.

Example

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    [
        "class"     => "OC_User_FTP",
        "arguments" => [
            'localhost'
        ],
    ],
],