<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Using 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="Special Topics" HREF="special.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Cryptographic Algorithms and Protocols" HREF="crypto.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Tools" HREF="tools.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="crypto.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 11. Special Topics</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="tools.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="USE-PAM" ></A >11.6. Using PAM</H1 ><P >Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) is a flexible mechanism for authenticating users. Many Unix-like systems support PAM, including Solaris, nearly all Linux distributions (e.g., Red Hat Linux, Caldera, and Debian as of version 2.2), and FreeBSD as of version 3.1. By using PAM, your program can be independent of the authentication scheme (passwords, SmartCards, etc.). Basically, your program calls PAM, which at run-time determines which ``authentication modules'' are required by checking the configuration set by the local system administrator. If you're writing a program that requires authentication (e.g., entering a password), you should include support for PAM. You can find out more about the Linux-PAM project at <A HREF="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/index.html" TARGET="_top" >http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/index.html</A >.</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="crypto.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="tools.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Cryptographic Algorithms and Protocols</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="special.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Tools</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >