What is the purpose of SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION ?

[teixemf]

Hi!
I am wondering what is the purpose of the env var SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION .
I am currently sending SNMPv3 informs to snmptrapd with a custom PRIV user.
I can successfully receive the informs as long as SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION is set to the default value (yes).
When I change it to "no", snmtrapd stops processing the informs.

Here is as an example the env vars I have set:
SNMP_ENGINEID=8000000001234567890ABC
SNMP_USER=NMS
SNMP_AUTH=1234567890AbCdEfG
SNMP_PRIV=GfEdCbA0987654321
SNMP_AUTH_PROTO=SHA
SNMP_PRIV_PROTO=AES-128
SNMP_SECURITY_LEVEL=priv
SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION=yes

[tigran-sargsyan-w]

SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION is essentially controlling whether snmptrapd performs authorization/access-control checks for incoming notifications.

With:

SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION=yes

those authorization checks are disabled, so the container falls back to accepting incoming notifications without applying the normal access-control restrictions.

With:

SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION=no

authorization is enabled, so your SNMPv3 INFORM has to match the effective SNMPv3/security configuration used by snmptrapd.

So the behavior you're seeing makes sense: yes is masking an authorization/configuration mismatch, while no exposes it.

Since you're using a custom authPriv user, I'd check the effective snmptrapd configuration and logs and verify that all of these match the sender:

username (NMS)
authentication protocol/key
privacy protocol/key
security level
engine ID expectations

I wouldn't use SNMP_DISABLE_AUTHORIZATION=yes as the final fix if you actually want SNMPv3 authorization enforced. It is useful for compatibility/troubleshooting, but no plus a correctly matched SNMPv3 configuration is the safer setup.