Authentication

Semantics

Before gaining any useful privileges, all IPC clients must authenticate themselves by using an auth name and a password. Two levels of authentication are available:

System authentication grants an application system-level permissions, for example: the ability to access the akill database, to list private data on nicknames in NickServ, or change certain parts of a nick that ordinary authentication to the nickname doesn't allow.

Object authentication grants a client extended permissions for a particular object; for example, by knowing a nickname's password, you can authenticate to that nickname in particular and make changes that your level of system authentication doesn't otherwise allow you.

In other words: system authentication grants a client certain rights on the system overall, and object authentication grants specific access to a particular nickname, channel, or other object and potentially other rights that are associated with being authenticated to that object.

System Authentication Details

System authentication occurs in a number of steps:

Object Authentication Details

The syntax and usage for OBJECT authentication is the same as that for SYSTEM authentication with a few differences.