pam_ssh(8)

NAME

pam_ssh - authentication and session management with SSH private keys

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

The SSH authentication service module for PAM, pam_ssh provides functionality for two PAM categories: authentication and session management. In terms of the module-type parameter, they are the ``auth'' and ``session'' features. It also provides null functions for the remaining categories.
SSH Authentication Module
The SSH authentication component provides a function to verify the identity of a user (pam_sm_authenticate()), by prompting the user for a passphrase and verifying that it can decrypt the target user's SSH key
using that passphrase.
The following options may be passed to the authentication module:
debug 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.
keyfiles Specify the comma-separated list of files in $HOME/.ssh
to check for SSH keys. The default is
``id_dsa,id_rsa,identity''.
SSH Session Management Module
The SSH session management component provides functions to initiate
(pam_sm_open_session()) and terminate (pam_sm_close_session()) sessions. The pam_sm_open_session() function starts an SSH agent, passing it any private keys it decrypted during the authentication phase, and sets the
environment variables the agent specifies. The pam_sm_close_session() function kills the previously started SSH agent by sending it a SIGTERM.
The following options may be passed to the session management module:
debug syslog(3) debugging information at LOG_DEBUG level.

FILES

$HOME/.ssh/identity SSH1/OpenSSH RSA key
$HOME/.ssh/id_dsa OpenSSH DSA key
$HOME/.ssh2/id_rsa_* SSH2 RSA keys
$HOME/.ssh2/id_dsa_* SSH2 DSA keys

SEE ALSO

ssh-agent(1), syslog(3), pam.conf(5), pam(8)

AUTHORS

Andrew J. Korty <ajk@iu.edu> wrote pam_ssh. Dag-Erling Smorgrav wrote the original OpenPAM support code. Mark R V Murray wrote the original
version of this manual page.
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