3.2. Authentication management

3.2.1. Service function for user authentication

#include <security/pam_modules.h>
int pam_sm_authenticate(pamh,  
 flags,  
 argc,  
 argv); 
pam_handle_t *pamh;
int flags;
int argc;
const char **argv;
 

3.2.1.1. DESCRIPTION

The pam_sm_authenticate function is the service module's implementation of the pam_authenticate(3) interface.

This function performs the task of authenticating the user.

Valid flags, which may be logically OR'd with PAM_SILENT, are:

PAM_SILENT

Do not emit any messages.

PAM_DISALLOW_NULL_AUTHTOK

Return PAM_AUTH_ERR if the database of authentication tokens for this authentication mechanism has a NULL entry for the user. Without this flag, such a NULL token will lead to a success without the user being prompted.

3.2.1.2. RETURN VALUES

PAM_AUTH_ERR

Authentication failure.

PAM_CRED_INSUFFICIENT

For some reason the application does not have sufficient credentials to authenticate the user.

PAM_AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL

The modules were not able to access the authentication information. This might be due to a network or hardware failure etc.

PAM_SUCCESS

The authentication token was successfully updated.

PAM_USER_UNKNOWN

The supplied username is not known to the authentication service.

PAM_MAXTRIES

One or more of the authentication modules has reached its limit of tries authenticating the user. Do not try again.

3.2.2. Service function to alter credentials

#include <security/pam_modules.h>
int pam_sm_setcred(pamh,  
 flags,  
 argc,  
 argv); 
pam_handle_t *pamh;
int flags;
int argc;
const char **argv;
 

3.2.2.1. DESCRIPTION

The pam_sm_setcred function is the service module's implementation of the pam_setcred(3) interface.

This function performs the task of altering the credentials of the user with respect to the corresponding authorization scheme. Generally, an authentication module may have access to more information about a user than their authentication token. This function is used to make such information available to the application. It should only be called after the user has been authenticated but before a session has been established.

Valid flags, which may be logically OR'd with PAM_SILENT, are:

PAM_SILENT

Do not emit any messages.

PAM_ESTABLISH_CRED

Initialize the credentials for the user.

PAM_DELETE_CRED

Delete the credentials associated with the authentication service.

PAM_REINITIALIZE_CRED

Reinitialize the user credentials.

PAM_REFRESH_CRED

Extend the lifetime of the user credentials.

The way the auth stack is navigated in order to evaluate the pam_setcred() function call, independent of the pam_sm_setcred() return codes, is exactly the same way that it was navigated when evaluating the pam_authenticate() library call. Typically, if a stack entry was ignored in evaluating pam_authenticate(), it will be ignored when libpam evaluates the pam_setcred() function call. Otherwise, the return codes from each module specific pam_sm_setcred() call are treated as required.

3.2.2.2. RETURN VALUES

PAM_CRED_UNAVAIL

This module cannot retrieve the user's credentials.

PAM_CRED_EXPIRED

The user's credentials have expired.

PAM_CRED_ERR

This module was unable to set the credentials of the user.

PAM_SUCCESS

The user credential was successfully set.

PAM_USER_UNKNOWN

The user is not known to this authentication module.

These, non-PAM_SUCCESS, return values will typically lead to the credential stack failing. The first such error will dominate in the return value of pam_setcred().