pam_authenticate(3)pam_authenticate(3)NAMEpam_authenticate - perform authentication within the PAM framework
SYNOPSIS
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DESCRIPTION
is called to authenticate the current user. The user is usually
required to enter a password or similar authentication token depending
upon the authentication service configured within the system. In the
case of smart card authentication this token would be a (Personal Iden‐
tification Number). The user in question should have been specified by
a prior call to or The following flags may be set in the flags field:
Authentication service should not generate any messages
The authentication service should return
if the user has a null authentication token
APPLICATION USAGE
Refer to pam(3) for information on thread-safety of PAM interfaces.
NOTES
In the case of authentication failures due to an incorrect username or
password, it is the responsibility of the application to retry and to
maintain the retry count. An authentication service module may imple‐
ment an internal retry count and return an error if the module does not
want the application to retry.
If the PAM framework can not load the authentication module, then it
will return This indicates a serious failure and that the application
should not attempt to retry the authentication.
For security reasons, the location of authentication failures is hidden
from the user. Thus, if several authentication services are stacked
and a single service fails, requires that the user re-authenticate to
all the services.
A null authentication token in the authentication database will result
in successful authentication unless was specified. In such cases,
there will not be any prompting for the user to enter an authentication
token.
The authentication can be done through a smart card. In this case the
user plugs their smart card in the smart card reader and is required to
enter their smart card PIN.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, is returned. In addition to the error
return values described in pam(3), the following values may be
returned:
Authentication failure.
Can not access authentication data due to insufficient credentials.
Underlying authentication service can not retrieve authentication
information.
User not known to the underlying authentication module.
An authentication service has maintained a retry count which
has been reached. No further retries
should be attempted.
SEE ALSOpam(3), pam_start(3), pam_open_session(3), pam_setcred(3).
pam_authenticate(3)
