Ubuntu Manpage: pam_sss - PAM module for SSSD

Provided by: libpam-sss_2.9.1-2ubuntu2.1_amd64

NAME

       pam_sss - PAM module for SSSD

SYNOPSIS

       pam_sss.so [quiet] [forward_pass] [use_first_pass] [use_authtok] [retry=N]
                  [ignore_unknown_user] [ignore_authinfo_unavail] [domains=X]
                  [allow_missing_name] [prompt_always] [try_cert_auth] [require_cert_auth]

DESCRIPTION

       pam_sss.so is the PAM interface to the System Security Services daemon (SSSD). Errors and
       results are logged through syslog(3) with the LOG_AUTHPRIV facility.

OPTIONS

quiet
Suppress log messages for unknown users.

forward_pass
If forward_pass is set the entered password is put on the stack for other PAM modules
to use.

use_first_pass
The argument use_first_pass forces the module to use a previous stacked modules
password and will never prompt the user - if no password is available or the password
is not appropriate, the user will be denied access.

use_authtok
When password changing enforce the module to set the new password to the one provided
by a previously stacked password module.

retry=N
If specified the user is asked another N times for a password if authentication fails.
Default is 0.

Please note that this option might not work as expected if the application calling PAM
handles the user dialog on its own. A typical example is sshd with
PasswordAuthentication.

ignore_unknown_user
If this option is specified and the user does not exist, the PAM module will return
PAM_IGNORE. This causes the PAM framework to ignore this module.

ignore_authinfo_unavail
Specifies that the PAM module should return PAM_IGNORE if it cannot contact the SSSD
daemon. This causes the PAM framework to ignore this module.

domains
Allows the administrator to restrict the domains a particular PAM service is allowed
to authenticate against. The format is a comma-separated list of SSSD domain names, as
specified in the sssd.conf file.

NOTE: If this is used for a service not running as root user, e.g. a web-server, it
must be used in conjunction with the “pam_trusted_users” and “pam_public_domains”
options. Please see the sssd.conf(5) manual page for more information on these two PAM
responder options.

allow_missing_name
The main purpose of this option is to let SSSD determine the user name based on
additional information, e.g. the certificate from a Smartcard.

The current use case are login managers which can monitor a Smartcard reader for card
events. In case a Smartcard is inserted the login manager will call a PAM stack which
includes a line like

auth sufficient pam_sss.so allow_missing_name

In this case SSSD will try to determine the user name based on the content of the
Smartcard, returns it to pam_sss which will finally put it on the PAM stack.

prompt_always
Always prompt the user for credentials. With this option credentials requested by
other PAM modules, typically a password, will be ignored and pam_sss will prompt for
credentials again. Based on the pre-auth reply by SSSD pam_sss might prompt for a
password, a Smartcard PIN or other credentials.

try_cert_auth
Try to use certificate based authentication, i.e. authentication with a Smartcard or
similar devices. If a Smartcard is available and the service is allowed for Smartcard
authentication the user will be prompted for a PIN and the certificate based
authentication will continue

If no Smartcard is available or certificate based authentication is not allowed for
the current service PAM_AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL is returned.

require_cert_auth
Do certificate based authentication, i.e. authentication with a Smartcard or similar
devices. If a Smartcard is not available the user will be prompted to insert one. SSSD
will wait for a Smartcard until the timeout defined by p11_wait_for_card_timeout
passed, please see sssd.conf(5) for details.

If no Smartcard is available after the timeout or certificate based authentication is
not allowed for the current service PAM_AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL is returned.

MODULE TYPES PROVIDED

       All module types (account, auth, password and session) are provided.

       If SSSD's PAM responder is not running, e.g. if the PAM responder socket is not available,
       pam_sss will return PAM_USER_UNKNOWN when called as account module to avoid issues with
       users from other sources during access control.

RETURN VALUES

PAM_SUCCESS
The PAM operation finished successfully.

PAM_USER_UNKNOWN
The user is not known to the authentication service or the SSSD's PAM responder is not
running.

PAM_AUTH_ERR
Authentication failure. Also, could be returned when there is a problem with getting
the certificate.

PAM_PERM_DENIED
Permission denied. The SSSD log files may contain additional information about the
error.

PAM_IGNORE
See options ignore_unknown_user and ignore_authinfo_unavail.

PAM_AUTHTOK_ERR
Unable to obtain the new authentication token. Also, could be returned when the user
authenticates with certificates and multiple certificates are available, but the
installed version of GDM does not support selection from multiple certificates.

PAM_AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL
Unable to access the authentication information. This might be due to a network or
hardware failure.

PAM_BUF_ERR
A memory error occurred. Also, could be returned when options use_first_pass or
use_authtok were set, but no password was found from the previously stacked PAM
module.

PAM_SYSTEM_ERR
A system error occurred. The SSSD log files may contain additional information about
the error.

PAM_CRED_ERR
Unable to set the credentials of the user.

PAM_CRED_INSUFFICIENT
The application does not have sufficient credentials to authenticate the user. For
example, missing PIN during smartcard authentication or missing factor during
two-factor authentication.

PAM_SERVICE_ERR
Error in service module.

PAM_NEW_AUTHTOK_REQD
The user's authentication token has expired.

PAM_ACCT_EXPIRED
The user account has expired.

PAM_SESSION_ERR
Unable to fetch IPA Desktop Profile rules or user info.

PAM_CRED_UNAVAIL
Unable to retrieve Kerberos user credentials.

PAM_NO_MODULE_DATA
No authentication method was found by Kerberos. This might happen if the user has a
Smartcard assigned but the pkint plugin is not available on the client.

PAM_CONV_ERR
Conversation failure.

PAM_AUTHTOK_LOCK_BUSY
No KDC suitable for password change is available.

PAM_ABORT
Unknown PAM call.

PAM_MODULE_UNKNOWN
Unsupported PAM task or command.

PAM_BAD_ITEM
The authentication module cannot handle Smartcard credentials.

FILES

       If a password reset by root fails, because the corresponding SSSD provider does not
       support password resets, an individual message can be displayed. This message can e.g.
       contain instructions about how to reset a password.

       The message is read from the file pam_sss_pw_reset_message.LOC where LOC stands for a
       locale string returned by setlocale(3). If there is no matching file the content of
       pam_sss_pw_reset_message.txt is displayed. Root must be the owner of the files and only
       root may have read and write permissions while all other users must have only read
       permissions.

       These files are searched in the directory /etc/sssd/customize/DOMAIN_NAME/. If no matching
       file is present a generic message is displayed.

AUTHORS

       The SSSD upstream - https://github.com/SSSD/sssd/