Creating an OS X authentication plugin

Question

I need to create a plugin for OS X login mechanism so that I can unlock the screen other way than by typing a password. I know things like this already exist - Knock to unlock or Rohos USB key logon are examples.

I found the sample code on ADC called "NameAndPassword" (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/NameAndPassword/Introduction/Intro.html), and after some struggle (Custom login/lock screen in OS X Mavericks) I managed to build and install it on Mavericks. The problem is that the whole plugin is apparently a little outdated and does not log me in after I type the password (I need to reboot the machine through SSH). I'm an xcode/objective-c beginner and cannot fix the problem by myself.

Basically, my question is: how to modify the sample NameAndPassword code so that I could log in with input other than keyboard? I want to create an app that will provide the password, but not through keyboard - that's pretty much how I believe Knock to unlock works.

Answer 1

There are some bugs in Apple's official code. I patched them and put on my Github: https://github.com/skycocker/NameAndPassword

This version of the plugin should work fine, as long as you replace

<string>loginwindow:login</string>

line in authorization policy database with

<string>NameAndPassword:invoke</string> 

Otherwise it won't log you in.