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The KERBEROS_V5 is an experimental mechanism, the protocol specification is available on the GNU SASL homepage. It can operate in three modes, non-infrastructure mode, infrastructure mode and proxied infrastructure mode. Currently only non-infrastructure mode is supported.
In the non-infrastructure mode, it works as a superset of most features provided by PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5 and GSSAPI while at the same time building on what is believed to be proven technology (the RFC 1510 network security system). In the non-infrastructure mode, the client must specify (via callbacks) the name of the user, and optionally the server name and realm. The server must be able to retrieve passwords given the name of the user.
In the infrastructure mode (proxied or otherwise), it allows clients and servers to authenticate via SASL in an RFC 1510 environment, using a trusted third party, a “Key Distribution Central”. In the normal mode, clients aquire tickets out of band and then invokes a one roundtrip AP-REQ and AP-REP exchange. In the proxied mode, which can be used by clients without IP addresses or without connectivity to the KDC (e.g., when the KDC is IPv4 and the client is IPV6-only), the client uses the server to proxy ticket requests and finishes with the AP-REQ/AP-REP exchange. In infrastructure mode (proxied or otherwise), the client nor server need to implement any callbacks (this will likely change later, to allow a server to authorize users, similar to the GSSAPI callback).
XXX: update when implementation has matured