pam_unix.so [
...
]
This is the standard Unix authentication module. It uses standard calls from the system's libraries to retrieve and set account information as well as authentication. Usually this is obtained from the /etc/passwd and the /etc/shadow file as well if shadow is enabled.
The account component performs the task of establishing the status of the user's account and password based on the following shadow elements: expire, last_change, max_change, min_change, warn_change. In the case of the latter, it may offer advice to the user on changing their password or, through the PAM_AUTHTOKEN_REQD return, delay giving service to the user until they have established a new password. The entries listed above are documented in the shadow(5) manual page. Should the user's record not contain one or more of these entries, the corresponding shadow check is not performed.
The authentication component performs the task of checking the users credentials (password). The default action of this module is to not permit the user access to a service if their official password is blank.
A helper binary, unix_chkpwd(8), is provided
to check the user's password when it is stored in a read
protected database. This binary is very simple and will only
check the password of the user invoking it. It is called
transparently on behalf of the user by the authenticating
component of this module. In this way it is possible
for applications like xlock(1) to work without
being setuid-root. The module, by default, will temporarily turn
off SIGCHLD handling for the duration of execution of the helper
binary. This is generally the right thing to do, as many applications
are not prepared to handle this signal from a child they didn't know
was fork()d. The noreap module
argument can be used to suppress this temporary shielding and may be
needed for use with certain applications.
The password component of this module performs the task of updating the user's password. The default encryption hash is taken from the ENCRYPT_METHOD variable from /etc/login.defs
The session component of this module logs when a user logins or leave the system.
Remaining arguments, supported by others functions of this module, are silently ignored. Other arguments are logged as errors through syslog(3).
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debug Turns on debugging via syslog(3).
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audit A little more extreme than debug.
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nullok The default action of this module is to not permit the user access to a service if their official password is blank. The
nullokargument overrides this default.-
try_first_pass Before prompting the user for their password, the module first tries the previous stacked module's password in case that satisfies this module as well.
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use_first_pass The argument
use_first_passforces the module to use a previous stacked modules password and will never prompt the user - if no password is available or the password is not appropriate, the user will be denied access.-
nodelay This argument can be used to discourage the authentication component from requesting a delay should the authentication as a whole fail. The default action is for the module to request a delay-on-failure of the order of two second.
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use_authtok When password changing enforce the module to set the new password to the one provided by a previously stacked
passwordmodule (this is used in the example of the stacking of the pam_cracklib module documented below).-
not_set_pass This argument is used to inform the module that it is not to pay attention to/make available the old or new passwords from/to other (stacked) password modules.
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nis NIS RPC is used for setting new passwords.
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remember=n The last
npasswords for each user are saved in/etc/security/opasswdin order to force password change history and keep the user from alternating between the same password too frequently. Instead of this option the pam_pwhistory module should be used.-
shadow Try to maintain a shadow based system.
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md5 When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the MD5 algorithm.
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bigcrypt When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the DEC C2 algorithm.
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sha256 When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the SHA256 algorithm. If the SHA256 algorithm is not known to the crypt(3) function, fall back to MD5.
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sha512 When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the SHA512 algorithm. If the SHA512 algorithm is not known to the crypt(3) function, fall back to MD5.
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blowfish When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the blowfish algorithm. If the blowfish algorithm is not known to the crypt(3) function, fall back to MD5.
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rounds=n Set the optional number of rounds of the SHA256, SHA512 and blowfish password hashing algorithms to
n.-
broken_shadow Ignore errors reading shadow information for users in the account management module.
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minlen=n Set a minimum password length of
ncharacters. The max. for DES crypt based passwords are 8 characters.
Invalid arguments are logged with syslog(3).
An example usage for /etc/pam.d/login
would be:
# Authenticate the user
auth required pam_unix.so
# Ensure users account and password are still active
account required pam_unix.so
# Change the users password, but at first check the strength
# with pam_cracklib(8)
password required pam_cracklib.so retry=3 minlen=6 difok=3
password required pam_unix.so use_authtok nullok md5
session required pam_unix.so