Published Paper Details:

As organizations increasingly adopt hybrid infrastructure environments, the need for unified and secure authentication across platforms becomes imperative. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems integrated with Windows Active Directory (AD) using the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) offer a scalable solution to this challenge. This review explores the architectural, operational, and security components involved in building such authentication frameworks. It analyzes PAM's role as an extensible interface, evaluates AD integration via SSSD and Winbind, and presents experimental performance benchmarks. Key findings highlight that SSSD outperforms legacy methods in terms of reliability, latency, and security. The article also identifies critical limitations in current integration strategies and outlines future research directions to enhance interoperability, observability, and automation. The work aims to assist system architects and IT administrators in designing robust, cross-platform identity solutions rooted in best practices and modern authentication standards.