PAM_KSU(8)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, meet pam_ksu — the Kerberos 5 SU PAM module 💅. This is page PAM_KSU(8) from the System Manager's Manual, and she's here to handle your Kerberos 5 SU authentication business.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

[service-name] module-type control-flag pam_ksu [options]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The Kerberos 5 SU authentication service module for PAM, pam_ksu, handles only one PAM category: authentication. In terms of the module-type parameter, this is the "auth" feature. The module is specifically designed to be used with the su(1) utility. Periodt.

🦋 Kerberos 5 SU Authentication Module 🦋

The Kerberos 5 SU authentication component provides functions to verify the identity of a user — pam_sm_authenticate() — and determine whether or not the user is authorized to obtain the privileges of the target account.

If the target account is "root", then the Kerberos 5 principal used for authentication and authorization will be the "root" instance of the current user, e.g. "user/root@REAL.M". Otherwise, the principal will simply be the current user's default principal, e.g. "user@REAL.M".

The user is prompted for a password if necessary. Authorization is performed by comparing the Kerberos 5 principal with those listed in the .k5login file in the target account's home directory (e.g. /root/.k5login for root).

The following options may be passed to the authentication module:

• debug — provides syslog(3) debugging information at LOG_DEBUG level. 💀
• use_first_pass — if the authentication module is not the first in the stack, and a previous module obtained the user's password, that password is used to authenticate the user. If this fails, the authentication module returns failure without prompting the user for a password. This option has no effect if the authentication module is the first in the stack, or if no previous modules obtained the user's password.
• try_first_pass — this option is similar to the use_first_pass option, except that if the previously obtained password fails, the user is prompted for another password.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

su(1), pam(3), syslog(3), pam.conf(5)

xoxo, this page is brought to you by Debian, dated May 15, 2002, and filed under PAM_KSU(8) — slay 💅✨