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PAM(3PAM)							     PAM(3PAM)

NAME
       pam - PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <security/pam_appl.h>
       cc [ flag... ] file ... -lpam [ library ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       The  PAM framework, libpam, consists of an interface library and multi‐
       ple authentication  service modules.  The PAM interface library is  the
       layer implementing the  Application Programming Interface ( API ).  The
       authentication service  modules	are  a	set  of	 dynamically  loadable
       objects	invoked	 by  the  PAM API to provide a particular type of user
       authentication. PAM gives  system  administrators  the  flexibility  of
       choosing	 any authentication service available on the system to perform
       authentication. This framework also allows new  authentication  service
       modules	to  be	plugged	 in  and  made available without modifying the
       applications.

       Refer to	 Solaris Security for Developers Guide for  information	 about
       providing  authentication,  account management, session management, and
       password management through PAM modules.

   Interface Overview
       The PAM library interface consists of six categories of functions,  the
       names for which all start with the prefix  pam_.

       The  first category contains functions for establishing and terminating
       an   authentication   activity,	 which	 are	pam_start(3PAM)	   and
       pam_end(3PAM).  The functions pam_set_data(3PAM) and pam_get_data(3PAM)
       maintain module specific data.  The  functions  pam_set_item(3PAM)  and
       pam_get_item(3PAM)  maintain  state  information. pam_strerror(3PAM) is
       the function that returns error status information.

       The second category contains the functions that authenticate  an	 indi‐
       vidual user and set the credentials of the user, pam_authenticate(3PAM)
       and pam_setcred(3PAM).

       The third category of  PAM interfaces is account management. The	 func‐
       tion  pam_acct_mgmt(3PAM)  checks  for  password	 aging and access-hour
       restrictions.

       Category four contains the functions that  perform  session  management
       after access to the system has been granted. See pam_open_session(3PAM)
       and pam_close_session(3PAM)

       The fifth category consists of the function that changes authentication
       tokens, pam_chauthtok(3PAM). An authentication token is the object used
       to verify the identity of the user. In UNIX, an authentication token is
       a user's password.

       The sixth category of functions can be used to set values for PAM envi‐
       ronment	variables.   See   pam_putenv(3PAM),   pam_getenv(3PAM),   and
       pam_getenvlist(3PAM).

       The  pam_*() interfaces are implemented through the library libpam. For
       each of the categories listed above, excluding categories one and  six,
       dynamically loadable shared modules exist that provides the appropriate
       service layer functionality upon demand. The functional entry points in
       the  service layer start with the  pam_sm_ prefix.  The only difference
       between the pam_sm_*() interfaces and their corresponding  pam_	inter‐
       faces is that all the pam_sm_*() interfaces require extra parameters to
       pass  service−specific  options	to  the	 shared	 modules.   Refer   to
       pam_sm(3PAM) for an overview of the PAM service module APIs.

   Stateful Interface
       A  sequence  of	calls  sharing	a  common  set of state information is
       referred	 to  as	 an  authentication  transaction.   An	authentication
       transaction  begins  with  a call to pam_start(). pam_start() allocates
       space, performs various initialization activities, and  assigns	a  PAM
       authentication handle to be used for subsequent calls to the library.

       After initiating an authentication transaction, applications can invoke
       pam_authenticate()   to	 authenticate	a   particular	  user,	   and
       pam_acct_mgmt()	to  perform  system entry management. For example, the
       application may want to determine if the user's	password has expired.

       If the user has been successfully authenticated, the application	 calls
       pam_setcred() to set any user credentials associated with the authenti‐
       cation  service.	 Within	 one   authentication	transaction   (between
       pam_start()  and	 pam_end()), all calls to the  PAM interface should be
       made with the same authentication handle returned by pam_start().  This
       is  necessary because certain service modules may store module-specific
       data in a handle that is intended for use by other modules.  For	 exam‐
       ple,  during  the call to pam_authenticate(), service modules may store
       data in the handle that is intended for use by pam_setcred().

       To perform session management,  applications  call  pam_open_session().
       Specifically, the system may want to store  the total time for the ses‐
       sion. The function pam_close_session() closes the current session.

       When necessary, applications can call pam_get_item() and pam_set_item()
       to  access  and	to  update  specific  authentication information. Such
       information may include the current username.

       To terminate an	authentication	transaction,  the  application	simply
       calls  pam_end(),  which frees previously allocated space used to store
       authentication information.

   Application−Authentication Service Interactive Interface
       The authentication service in PAM does not  communicate	directly  with
       the  user;  instead  it	relies	on the application to perform all such
       interactions.  The  application	passes	a  pointer  to	the  function,
       conv(),	along with any associated application data pointers, through a
       pam_conv structure to the authentication service when it	 initiates  an
       authentication transaction, via a call to pam_start(). The service will
       then use the function, conv(), to prompt the  user  for	data,	output
       error  messages, and display text information. Refer to pam_start(3PAM)
       for more information.

   Stacking Multiple Schemes
       The PAM architecture enables authentication by multiple	authentication
       services through stacking. System entry applications, such as login(1),
       stack multiple service modules  to  authenticate	 users	with  multiple
       authentication services. The order in which authentication service mod‐
       ules are stacked is specified in the configuration  file,  pam.conf(4).
       A  system  administrator	 determines this ordering, and also determines
       whether the same password can be used for all authentication services.

   Administrative Interface
       The authentication library, /usr/lib/libpam.so.1, implements the frame‐
       work  interface.	 Various  authentication  services are	implemented by
       their own loadable  modules  whose  paths  are  specified  through  the
       pam.conf(4) file.

RETURN VALUES
       The  PAM	 functions may return one of the following generic values,  or
       one of the values defined in the specific man pages:

       PAM_SUCCESS
			  The function returned successfully.

       PAM_OPEN_ERR
			  dlopen() failed when dynamically loading  a  service
			  module.

       PAM_SYMBOL_ERR
			  Symbol not found.

       PAM_SERVICE_ERR
			  Error in service module.

       PAM_SYSTEM_ERR
			  System error.

       PAM_BUF_ERR
			  Memory buffer error.

       PAM_CONV_ERR
			  Conversation failure.

       PAM_PERM_DENIED
			  Permission denied.

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for description of the following attributes:

       ┌───────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
       │ATTRIBUTE TYPE │     ATTRIBUTE VALUE	 │
       ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │MT Level       │ MT-Safe with exceptions │
       └───────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

SEE ALSO
       login(1),  pam_authenticate(3PAM),  pam_chauthtok(3PAM),	 pam_open_ses‐
       sion(3PAM),   pam_set_item(3PAM),   pam_setcred(3PAM),	 pam_sm(3PAM),
       pam_start(3PAM), pam_strerror(3PAM), pam.conf(4), attributes(5)

       Solaris Security for Developers Guide

NOTES
       The  interfaces in  libpam() are MT-Safe only if each thread within the
       multithreaded application uses its own  PAM handle.

				 Feb 22, 2005			     PAM(3PAM)
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