PAM_SUCCEED_IF(8)

📦
version 1.7.3 · 17 versions
, in arch rolling

✨ pam_succeed_if 💅✨

okay bestie, welcome to PAM_SUCCEED_IF(8), straight outta the Linux-PAM Manual 🎀. this one's a lil module that's basically the vibe-check bouncer of PAM — it peeks at your account's characteristics and goes "yeah you're in" or "no ma'am" 🚪💖. it's giving gatekeeper, but make it authentication.

🌸 NAME 🌸

pam_succeed_if — test account characteristics 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pam_succeed_if.so [flag...] [condition...]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so pam_succeed_if.so is literally designed to succeed or fail authentication based on characteristics of the account belonging to the user being authenticated, or values of other PAM items. one super iconic use is selecting whether to load other modules based on this test — like, it decides who even gets to the party 🎉.

the module should be given one or more conditions as module arguments, and authentication will succeed only if all of the conditions are met. all of them. every single one. no skipping, bestie 🫶.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

the following flags are supported:

  • debug — turns on debugging messages sent to syslog. so it'll spill the tea to syslog 🍵.
  • use_uid — evaluate conditions using the account of the user whose UID the application is running under, instead of the user being authenticated. lowkey a whole different person's account, be aware 👀.
  • quiet — don't log failure or success to the system log. 🤫
  • quiet_fail — don't log failure to the system log. only the fails get muted, the wins still get posted 💀.
  • quiet_success — don't log success to the system log. only the wins go silent this time ✨.
  • audit — log unknown users to the system log. not me snitching on the strangers 🙈.

conditions are three words: a field, a test, and a value to test for. so like, field, vibe, expectation. periodt 💅.

the available fields are user, uid, gid, shell, home, ruser, rhost, tty and service:

  • field < number — field has a value numerically less than number.
  • field <= number — field has a value numerically less than or equal to number.
  • field eq number — field has a value numerically equal to number.
  • field >= number — field has a value numerically greater than or equal to number.
  • field > number — field has a value numerically greater than number.
  • field ne number — field has a value numerically different from number.
  • field = string — field exactly matches the given string. exact. no wiggle room 💅.
  • field != string — field does not match the given string.
  • field =~ glob — field matches the given glob.
  • field !~ glob — field does not match the given glob.
  • field in item:item:... — field is contained in the list of items separated by colons. 👑
  • field notin item:item:... — field is not contained in the list of items separated by colons.
  • user ingroup group[:group:....] — user is in given group(s). bestie is in the group chat ✅.
  • user notingroup group[:group:....] — user is not in given group(s). not in the gc, sorry 🚫.
  • user innetgr netgroup — (user,host) is in given netgroup.
  • user notinnetgr group — (user,host) is not in given netgroup.

🧚 MODULE TYPES PROVIDED 🧚

all module types — account, auth, password and session — are provided. all of them. versatile queen 🌈.

⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

  • PAM_SUCCESS — the condition was true. slay, it passed 💖.
  • PAM_AUTH_ERR — the condition was false. it's a no from me 😭.
  • PAM_SERVICE_ERR — a service error occurred, or the arguments can't be parsed correctly. something broke or the args are giving nonsense 💀.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

to emulate the behaviour of pam_wheel, except there is no fallback to group 0 — being only approximated by checking also the root group membership:

auth required pam_succeed_if.so quiet user ingroup wheel:root

given that the type matches, only loads the othermodule rule if the UID is over 500. adjust the number after default to skip several rules:

type [default=1 success=ignore] pam_succeed_if.so quiet uid > 500
type required othermodule.so arguments...

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

glob(7), pam(8)

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin@redhat.com> — thank you for your service king 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was Linux-PAM, dated 09/27/2026, and honestly? iconic. go forth and gatekeep responsibly 💅✨🫶

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