pam(3PAM) PAM Library Functions pam(3PAM)NAMEpam - 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 Chapter 3, "Writing PAM Applications and Services", of the
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 differ‐
ence between the pam_sm_*() interfaces and their corresponding pam_
interfaces is that all the pam_sm_*() interfaces require extra parame‐
ters 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 authenti‐
cation 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 modules 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 authentica‐
tion 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 ser‐
vice 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 ALSOlogin(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.
SunOS 5.10 22 Feb 2005 pam(3PAM)
