FreeBSD manual
download PDF document: pam.conf.5.pdf
PAM.CONF(5) FreeBSD File Formats Manual PAM.CONF(5)
NAME
pam.conf - PAM policy file format
DESCRIPTION
The PAM library searches for policies in the following files, in
decreasing order of preference:
1. /etc/pam.d/service-name
2. /etc/pam.conf
3. /usr/local/etc/pam.d/service-name
4. /usr/local/etc/pam.conf
If none of these locations contains a policy for the given service, the
"other" policy is used instead, if it exists.
Entries in per-service policy files must be of one of the two forms
below:
facility control-flag module-path [arguments ...]
facility include other-service-name
Entries in pam.conf-style policy files are of the same form, but are
prefixed by an additional field specifying the name of the service they
apply to.
In both cases, blank lines and comments introduced by a `#' sign are
ignored, and the normal shell quoting rules apply. The precise details
of how the file is tokenized are described in openpam_readword(3).
The facility field specifies the facility the entry applies to, and is
one of:
auth Authentication functions (pam_authenticate(3),
pam_setcred(3))
account Account management functions (pam_acct_mgmt(3))
session Session handling functions (pam_open_session(3),
pam_close_session(3))
password Password management functions (pam_chauthtok(3))
The control-flag field determines how the result returned by the module
affects the flow of control through (and the final result of) the rest of
the chain, and is one of:
required If this module succeeds, the result of the chain will be
success unless a later module fails. If it fails, the rest
of the chain still runs, but the final result will be
failure regardless of the success of later modules.
requisite If this module succeeds, the result of the chain will be
success unless a later module fails. If the module fails,
the chain is broken and the result is failure.
is success. If it fails, the rest of the chain still runs,
but the final result will be failure regardless of the
success of later modules.
optional If this module succeeds, the result of the chain will be
success unless a later module fails. If this module fails,
the result of the chain will be failure unless a later
module succeeds.
There are two exceptions to the above: sufficient and binding modules are
treated as optional by pam_setcred(3), and in the PAM_PRELIM_CHECK phase
of pam_chauthtok(3).
The module-path field specifies the name or full path of the module to
call. If only the name is specified, the PAM library will search for it
in the following locations:
1. /usr/lib
2. /usr/local/lib
The remaining fields, if any, are passed unmodified to the module if and
when it is invoked.
The include form of entry causes entries from a different chain
(specified by other-system-name) to be included in the current one. This
allows one to define system-wide policies which are then included into
service-specific policies. The system-wide policy can then be modified
without having to also modify each and every service-specific policy.
Take care not to introduce loops when using include rules, as there is
currently no loop detection in place.
MODULE OPTIONS
Some PAM library functions may alter their behavior when called by a
service module if certain module options were specified, regardless of
whether the module itself accords them any importance. One such option
is debug, which causes the dispatcher to enable debugging messages before
calling each service function, and disable them afterwards (unless they
were already enabled). Other special options include:
authtok_prompt=prompt, oldauthtok_prompt=prompt, user_prompt=prompt
These options can be used to override the prompts used by
pam_get_authtok(3) and pam_get_user(3).
echo_pass This option controls whether pam_get_authtok(3) will allow
the user to see what they are typing.
try_first_pass, use_first_pass
These options control pam_get_authtok(3)'s use of cached
authentication tokens.
SEE ALSO
pam(3)
STANDARDS
X/Open Single Sign-On Service (XSSO) - Pluggable Authentication Modules,
June 1997.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 June 27, 2023 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11