PAM_PERMIT(8)

📦
version 1.7.3 · 18 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 PAM_PERMIT — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the pam_permit page from the Linux-PAM manuals. this one's short, sweet, and honestly a little unhinged. buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

pam_permit — the promiscuous module 🫦

like. that's literally what it's called. it says yes to everything. no thoughts, just vibes.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pam_permit.so

that's it. that's the whole synopsis. she's low maintenance, she's not gonna make you pass a bunch of arguments. 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so pam_permit is a PAM module that always permit access. like, always always. it does nothing else. no checking, no thinking, no gatekeeping. it is the yes-man of PAM modules and honestly? iconic behavior.

here's the one detail you actually need to know though, bestie, because it's giving sneaky:

in the case of authentication, the user's name will be set to nobody if the application didn't set one. and ngl, many applications and PAM modules become confused if this name is unknown. 😭 so like, it's not just "yay everyone's in," it's "yay everyone's in and also half of them are named nobody now."

🚨 the way that this module is very dangerous. for real. it should be used with extreme caution. this is not a drill, this is not a vibe, this is a "you better know exactly why you're putting this in your config" situation. 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

this module does not recognise any options. zero. none. she's not taking requests, she's not taking flags, she's not taking notes. 🙈

✨ MODULE TYPES PROVIDED ✨

all four of the girls are here and accounted for:

  • auth
  • account
  • password
  • session

periodt. 💜

✨ RETURN VALUES ✨

  • PAM_SUCCESS — this module always returns this value. that's the whole list. that's the entire section. she only knows one answer and it's yes. 👑

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

wanna disable account management but still let your users log in? bold choice, but okay, here's the line:

account  required  pam_permit.so

drop that into your other login entries and boom, account management is effectively off, but logins keep working. no cap. ✨

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read those too, bestie, iykyk 🦋

✨ AUTHOR ✨

pam_permit was written by Andrew G. Morgan, <morgan@kernel.org>. thank you for your service, king 🫶

and that's the whole page!! this is the Linux-PAM Manual, version dated 09/27/2026, brought to you by the PAM_PERMIT(8) girlies. stay safe out there, don't put this in prod without thinking, and remember: just because a module always says yes doesn't mean you should let it. mwah 💖🌸

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