Interface to define how remote credentials are converted into a JAAS Subject. This interface is used by the RMI Connector Server, and can be used by other connector servers.

The user-defined authenticator instance is passed to the connector server in the environment map as the value of the attribute JMXConnectorServer.AUTHENTICATOR. For connector servers that use only this authentication system, if this attribute is not present or its value is null then no user authentication will be performed and full access to the methods exported by the MBeanServerConnection object will be allowed.

If authentication is successful then an authenticated subject filled in with its associated principals is returned. Authorization checks will be then performed based on the given set of principals.