I was wondering if MIT Kerberos is dependent on rpcbind in any way on Linux. If yes, when and why?
I haven't come across any resource online that addresses anything related to this. I do know that MIT Kerberos uses GSSAPI and RPCSEC_GSS which a security layer on top of RPC mechanism. But that's about it.
So no, MIT Kerberos V5 itself is not dependent on rpcbind on Linux. However, I think your confusion might arise from certain use cases where Kerberos is used with services that do involve RPC.
Kerberos operates independently of RPC mechanisms, the Key Distribution Centre and related Kerberos utilities communicate over standard network protocols (UDP/TCP) using well-known ports like 88 but this does not involve rpcbind.
If you’re setting up Kerberos for general purposes like securing SSH or HTTP, rpcbind is not needed. However if you’re securing RPC-based services like NFSv4, you’ll likely need rpcbind because of the underlying RPC needs not because of Kerberos itself.