<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >PAM</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Summary of Linux and Unix Security Features" HREF="features.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Audit" HREF="audit.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Specialized Security Extensions for Unix-like Systems" HREF="unix-extensions.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="audit.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 3. Summary of Linux and Unix Security Features</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="unix-extensions.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="PAM" ></A >3.9. PAM</H1 ><P >Sun Solaris and nearly all Linux systems use the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) system for authentication. PAM permits run-time configuration of authentication methods (e.g., use of passwords, smart cards, etc.). See <A HREF="use-pam.html" >Section 11.6</A > for more information on using PAM.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="audit.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="unix-extensions.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Audit</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="features.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Specialized Security Extensions for Unix-like Systems</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >