pwhistory.conf - pam_pwhistory configuration file

pam_pwhistory was written by Thorsten Kukuk. The support for pwhistory.conf was written by Iker Pedrosa. Linux-PAM 07/03/2025 PWHISTORY.CONF(5)

pwhistory.conf provides a way to configure the default settings for saving the last passwords for each user. This file is read by the pam_pwhistory module and is the preferred method over configuring pam_pwhistory directly. The file has a very simple name=value format with possible comments starting with # character. The whitespace at the beginning of line, end of line, and around the = sign is ignored.

/etc/security/pwhistory.conf file example: debug remember=5 file=/tmp/opasswd

/etc/security/pwhistory.conf the config file for custom options

pwhistory.conf - pam_pwhistory configuration file

debug Turns on debugging via syslog(3). enforce_for_root If this option is set, the check is enforced for root, too. remember=N The last N passwords for each user are saved. The default is 10. Value of 0 makes the module to keep the existing contents of the opasswd file unchanged. retry=N Prompt user at most N times before returning with error. The default is 1. file=/path/filename Store password history in file /path/filename rather than the default location. The default location is /etc/security/opasswd.

pwhistory(8), pam_pwhistory(8), pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)