Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)

Linux uses PAM (pluggable authentication modules) in the authentication process as a layer that communicates between the user and an application. PAM modules are available on a system wide basis, so they can be requested by any application. PAM allows for applications, such as system daemons, to share a single, unified authentication widget. Otherwise, each application would have to include an individually written system which would result in weaker overall security and issues with compatibility. PAM modules, which are a set of shared libraries for a specific authentication mechanism.

PAM is not itself a password database, but rather its configuration tells the system how exactly to do the authentication. There is a PAM module that is used to authenticate a user from /etc/.shadow called pam_unix.so - a module used to authenticate all users local and remote during login.

• Options can be passed to pam_unix in the /etc/pam.d/login file

sample PAM application configuration file:

#%PAM-1.0
auth	required  pam_securetty.so
auth	required  pam_unix.so nullok
auth	required  pam_nologin.so
account	required  pam_unix.so
password	required  pam_cracklib.so retry=3
password	required  pam_unix.so shadow nullok use_authtok
session	required  pam_unix.so

KEY Configuration lines:

auth required pam_securetty.so — This module ensures that if the user is trying to log in as root, the tty on which the user is logging in is listed in the /etc/securetty file, if that file exists.

auth required pam_unix.so nullok — This module prompts the user for a password and then checks the password using the information stored in /etc/passwd and, if it exists, /etc/shadow.

auth required pam_nologin.so — This is the final authentication step. It checks whether the /etc/nologin file exists. If it exists and the user is not root, authentication fails.

 

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