Provided by: libpam-mount_2.14-1_amd64 bug

Name

       pam_mount - A PAM module that can mount volumes for a user session

Overview

       This module is aimed at environments with central file servers that a user wishes to mount
       on login and unmount on logout, such as (semi-)diskless  stations  where  many  users  can
       logon  and where statically mounting the entire /home from a server is a security risk, or
       listing all possible volumes in /etc/fstab is not feasible.

       •   Users can define their  own  list  of  volumes  without  having  to  change  (possibly
           non-writable) global config files.

       •   Single sign-on feature - the user needs to type the password just once (at login)

       •   Transparent mount process

       •   No stored passwords

       •   Volumes  are  unmounted  on  logout,  freeing  system  resources  and not leaving data
           exposed.

       The module also supports mounting local filesystems of any kind the normal  mount  utility
       supports,  with  extra code to make sure certain volumes are set up properly because often
       they need more than just a mount call, such as encrypted volumes. This includes  SMB/CIFS,
       FUSE, dm-crypt and LUKS.

       If  you  intend  to  use  pam_mount to protect volumes on your computer using an encrypted
       filesystem system, please know that there are many other issues you need  to  consider  in
       order to protect your data. For example, you probably want to disable or encrypt your swap
       partition (the cryptoswap can help you do this). Do not assume a system is secure  without
       carefully considering potential threats.

Configuration

       The  primary  configuration  file for the pam_mount module is pam_mount.conf.xml.  On most
       platforms this file is read from /etc/security/pam_mount.conf.xml.  On  OpenBSD  pam_mount
       reads   its   configuration  file  from  /etc/pam_mount.conf.xml.   See  pam_mount.conf(5)
       documenting its use.

       Individual users may define additional volumes to mount if allowed  by  pam_mount.conf.xml
       (usually  ~/.pam_mount.conf.xml).  The  volume  keyword is the only valid keyword in these
       per-user configuration files. If the luserconf parameter  is  set  in  pam_mount.conf.xml,
       allowing  user-defined volume, then users may mount and unmount any volume they own at any
       mount point they own. On some filesystem configurations this may be  a  security  flaw  so
       user-defined  volumes  are  not allowed by the example pam_mount.conf.xml distributed with
       pam_mount.

PAM configuration

       In addition, you must include two entries in the  system's  applicable  /etc/pam.d/service
       config files, as the following example shows:

                  auth     required  pam_securetty.so
                  auth     required  pam_pwdb.so shadow nullok
                  auth     required  pam_nologin.so
              +++ auth     optional  pam_mount.so
                  account  required  pam_pwdb.so
                  password required  pam_cracklib.so
                  password required  pam_pwdb.so shadow nullok use_authtok
                  session  required  pam_pwdb.so
                  session  optional  pam_console.so
              +++ session  optional  pam_mount.so

       When "sufficient" is used in the second column, you must make sure that pam_mount is added
       before this entry. Otherwise pam_mount will not get executed should a previous PAM  module
       succeed. Also be aware of the "include" statements. These make PAM look into the specified
       file. If there is a "sufficient" statement, then the pam_mount entry must either be in the
       included file before the "sufficient" statement or before the "include" statement.

       If  you  use  pam_ldap, pam_winbind, or any other authentication services that make use of
       PAM's sufficient keyword, model your configuration on the following order:

              •••
              account sufficient  pam_ldap.so
              auth    required    pam_mount.so
              auth    sufficient  pam_ldap.so use_first_pass
              auth    required    pam_unix.so use_first_pass
              session optional    pam_mount.so
              •••

       This allows for:

       1.  pam_mount, as the first "auth" module, will prompt for a password and export it to the
           PAM system.

       2.  pam_ldap  will  use the password from the PAM system to try and authenticate the user.
           If this succedes, the user will be authenticated. If it fails, pam_unix  will  try  to
           authenticate.

       3.  pam_unix will try to authenticate the user if pam_ldap failed. If pam_unix fails, then
           the authentication will be refused (due to the "required").

       Alternatively, the following is possible (thanks to Andrew Morgan for the hint!):

              auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_unix2.so
              auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_ldap.so use_first_pass
              auth requisite pam_deny.so
              auth optional pam_mount.so

       It may seem odd, but the first three lines will make it so that at least one of  pam_unix2
       or  pam_ldap  has  to  succeed.  As  you  can  see, pam_mount will be run after successful
       authentication with these subsystems.

Encrypted disks

       pam_mount supports a few types  of  crypto.  The  most  common  are  encfs,  dm-crypt  and
       dm-crypt+LUKS.

       The  first  one uses the FUSE layer; files within the encfs container are stored as single
       encrypted files on the host in a previously-existing  directory.  If  you  store  lots  of
       files,  it  is recommended to have a lower filesystem that is strong in this area, such as
       xfs, but some software and/or your partitioning decisions may force you to use a different
       fs.  The  1:1  mapping  of  files also allows encrypted files to be reasonably efficiently
       rsync'ed for example without having to open the  encrypted  container.  Creation  is  done
       through the encfs(1) tool.

       dm-crypt  provides  whole-filesystem/entire-partition  encryption.  You  can also create a
       container file, but the idea is that it is represented as a  block  device  on  which  you
       still  have  to create a filesystem. In fact, this way you can select a filesystem of your
       choice. The downside is that shrinking is often not possible (there is no  such  issue  in
       encfs  because  it uses the lower fs). Suitable dm-crypt containers (and auxiliary files),
       using block devices or plain files, can be created using the pmt-ehd(8) tool.

       pmt-ehd creates filesystem key material which is a bunch of random bytes that will be used
       to en-/decrypt the volume. This material itself is encrypted with your own password - this
       is done so that you can change the password without having to reencrypt all of your data.

       LUKS is an extension for  dm-crypt  to  support  multi-password  containers.   Unless  you
       specifically need it, the above two solutions are recommended.

       NOTE:  The  key file that pmt-ehd(8) will create represents the filesystem key material as
       encrypted with your password. It is thus safe to store this on an unsecured filesystem.

Troubleshooting

       To ensure that your system and, possibly, the remote server are all  properly  configured,
       you  should  try  to mount all or some of the volumes by hand, using the same commands and
       mount points provided in pam_mount.conf.xml. This will save you a lot of grief,  since  it
       is more difficult to debug the mounting process via pam_mount.

       If  you  can mount the volumes by hand but it is not happening via pam_mount, you may want
       to enable the "debug" option in pam_mount.conf.xml to see what is happening.

       Verify if the user owns  the  mount  point  and  has  sufficient  permissions  over  that.
       pam_mount will verify this and will refuse to mount the remote volume if the user does not
       own that directory.

       If pam_mount is having trouble unmounting volumes  upon  logging  out,  enable  the  debug
       variable.  This causes pam_mount to run ofl on logout and write its output to the system's
       log.

Authors

       W. Michael Petullo

       Jan Engelhardt (current maintainer)

Community Support

       The following two forms of communication are available. The maintainer has no  preference,
       though you will reach more users who could answer by means of the mailing list.

       Mailing List:
              http://sf.net/mail/?group_id=41452

       Bug Tracker (no registration needed):
              http://sf.net/tracker/?group_id=41452