PAM_WARN(8)

📦
version 1.7.3 · 17 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 PAM_WARN 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to pam_warn — it's a Linux-PAM manual page and honestly it's giving "quiet observer who knows everything" energy. no cap. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

pam_warn — a PAM module that logs all PAM items when it gets called. that's it. that's the whole job. and it ate. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pam_warn.so

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, pam_warn is a PAM module whose entire personality is: it logs the service, terminal, user, remote user and remote host to syslog(3). 🌈

and here's the tea — it does not probe for those items. it doesn't go digging, it doesn't ask around. it just takes them straight from the standard PAM items, like a girl who already knows everybody at the party. ✨

the module always returns PAM_IGNORE, which is its way of saying "i'm literally just here to observe, i do not want to affect the authentication process." main character energy but make it hands off. periodt. 👑

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • none of them. this module does not recognise any options. zero. zilch. it's not that kind of girl. 🍓

💜 MODULE TYPES PROVIDED 💜

the following module types are provided:

  • auth
  • account
  • password
  • session

all four. she's versatile. she contains multitudes. 🧚

⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

  • PAM_IGNORE — this module always returns PAM_IGNORE. like, always. there is no other outcome. iykyk. 💀

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

okay so this is the iconic one — the config that warns and denies everything if there's no config entry for a service:

#%PAM-1.0
#
# If we don't have config entries for a service, the
# OTHER entries are used. To be secure, warn and deny
# access to everything.
other auth     required       pam_warn.so
other auth     required       pam_deny.so
other account  required       pam_warn.so
other account  required       pam_deny.so
other password required       pam_warn.so
other password required       pam_deny.so
other session  required       pam_warn.so
other session  required       pam_deny.so
lowkey obsessed with how it pairs pam_warn.so with pam_deny.so every single time — warn first, then deny. logging the vibe check, then shutting the door. 😭

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

👑 AUTHOR 👑

pam_warn was written by Andrew G. Morgan <morgan@kernel.org>. we stan. 💖

k bye bestie!! this was Linux-PAM, dated 09/27/2026, and you just read PAM_WARN(8). go forth and log responsibly 🦋✨💅

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