basic_pam_auth(8)

💖 basic_pam_auth — the Squid PAM glow-up 💖

okay bestie, this is basic_pam_auth(8), a lil System Manager's Manual moment. she's the PAM Basic authentication helper for Squid, and honestly? she's doing the most so your proxy can do a vibe check on every single login. ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

basic_pam_auth — PAM Basic authentication helper for Squid. no cap, that's literally her whole thing.

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

basic_pam_auth [-n service name  TTL ] [-o] [-1]

look at her. so compact. so iconic. 💅

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea, bestie: basic_pam_auth lets Squid plug into, like, a mostly any available PAM database so it can validate the user name and password of Basic HTTP authentication. that's it. that's the whole job. and she ate. 🔥

---

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -s service-name — tells Squid which PAM service name to use. the default? squid. yes, she named herself. main character energy tbh. 👑
• -t TTL — this one enables persistent PAM connections, meaning the connection to the PAM database stays open and gets reused for new logins instead of being torn down every time. the TTL is how long that connection gets kept open, in seconds. default is to not keep PAM connections open at all. ⏳

⚠️ heads up bestie: using persistent PAM connections is slightly outside the PAM specification and may not work with every PAM configuration. she's lowkey coloring outside the lines here, so vibe check your setup before you commit.

• -o — do not perform the PAM account management group (account expiration etc). so like, skipping the account vibes check. 🙈

---

🌈 CONFIGURATION 🌈

the program needs a PAM service configured in /etc/pam.conf or /etc/pam.d/squid. pick your path, she's flexible.

the default service name is squid, and the program makes use of the auth and account management groups to verify the password and the account's validity. two groups, one job, slay. 💅

for the deets on how to configure PAM services, go read the PAM documentation for your system. this manual does not cover PAM configuration details — that's somebody else's page, not mine. 🫶

---

⭐ NOTES ⭐

okay this is the serious part, bestie, so lock in. 🔒

when you use this for authenticating against local UNIX shadow password databases, the program must be running as root, or else it won't have sufficient permissions to access the user password database. such use of this program is not recommended — but if you absolutely need to, then make the program setuid root:

chown root basic_pam_auth
chmod u+s basic_pam_auth

and please, please note: in those configs it is also strongly recommended that you move the program into a directory where normal users cannot access it, because this mode of operation will allow any local user to brute-force other users' passwords. 💀 also note the program has not been fully audited and the author cannot be held responsible for any security issues due to such installations. i'm not being dramatic, that's just what the page says.

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

this program and documentation was written by Henrik Nordstrom <hno@squid-cache.org>. thank you for your service, king. 🫡

---

💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

 * Copyright (C) 1996-2026 The Squid Software Foundation and contributors
 *
 * Squid software is distributed under GPLv2+ license and includes
 * contributions from numerous individuals and organizations.
 * Please see the COPYING and CONTRIBUTORS files for details.

Squid basic_pam_auth and this manual is Copyright 1999,2002,2003 Henrik Nordstrom <hno@squid-cache.org> Distributed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) version 2 or later (GPLv2+).

---

🍓 QUESTIONS 🍓

questions on the usage of this program can be sent to the Squid Users mailing list <squid-users@lists.squid-cache.org>. they're nice, they'll help. 💖

---

🧚 REPORTING BUGS 🧚

bug reports need to be made in English. see https://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/BugReporting for details of what you need to include with your bug report.

report bugs or bug fixes using https://bugs.squid-cache.org/

report serious security bugs to Squid Bugs <squid-bugs@lists.squid-cache.org>

report ideas for new improvements to the Squid Developers mailing list <squid-dev@lists.squid-cache.org>

---

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• squid(8)
• pam(3)
• pam.conf(5)
• chown(1)
• chmod(1)
• GPL(7)
• PAM Systems Administrator Guide
• The Squid FAQ wiki https://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq
• The Squid Configuration Manual http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/config/

---

and that's the whole page bestie, you're all caught up. 💅✨

this lil manual moment is dated 5 Sep 2003, and it belongs to the basic_pam_auth(8) manual — she's been serving looks and auth checks for a minute. go forth and authenticate responsibly. 🫶🌸