debug
Turns on debugging via syslog(3).
audit
A little more extreme than debug.
nullok
The default action of this module is to not permit the user access to a service if their official
password is blank. The nullok argument overrides this default and allows any user with a blank
password to access the service.
nullok_secure
The default action of this module is to not permit the user access to a service if their official
password is blank. The nullok_secure argument overrides this default and allows any user with a blank
password to access the service as long as the value of PAM_TTY is set to one of the values found in
/etc/securetty.
try_first_pass
Before prompting the user for their password, the module first tries the previous stacked module's
password in case that satisfies this module as well.
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.
nodelay
This argument can be used to discourage the authentication component from requesting a delay should
the authentication as a whole fail. The default action is for the module to request a
delay-on-failure of the order of two second.
use_authtok
When password changing enforce the module to set the new password to the one provided by a previously
stacked password module (this is used in the example of the stacking of the pam_cracklib module
documented below).
not_set_pass
This argument is used to inform the module that it is not to pay attention to/make available the old
or new passwords from/to other (stacked) password modules.
nis
NIS RPC is used for setting new passwords.
remember=n
The last n passwords for each user are saved in /etc/security/opasswd in order to force password
change history and keep the user from alternating between the same password too frequently. Instead
of this option the pam_pwhistory module should be used.
shadow
Try to maintain a shadow based system.
md5
When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the MD5 algorithm.
bigcrypt
When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the DEC C2 algorithm.
sha256
When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the SHA256 algorithm. If the SHA256
algorithm is not known to the crypt(3) function, fall back to MD5.
sha512
When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the SHA512 algorithm. If the SHA512
algorithm is not known to the crypt(3) function, fall back to MD5.
blowfish
When a user changes their password next, encrypt it with the blowfish algorithm. If the blowfish
algorithm is not known to the crypt(3) function, fall back to MD5.
rounds=n
Set the optional number of rounds of the SHA256, SHA512 and blowfish password hashing algorithms to
n.
broken_shadow
Ignore errors reading shadow information for users in the account management module.
minlen=n
Set a minimum password length of n characters. The default value is 6. The maximum for DES
crypt-based passwords is 8 characters.
obscure
Enable some extra checks on password strength. These checks are based on the "obscure" checks in the
original shadow package. The behavior is similar to the pam_cracklib module, but for
non-dictionary-based checks. The following checks are implemented:
Palindrome
Verifies that the new password is not a palindrome of (i.e., the reverse of) the previous one.
CaseChangeOnly
Verifies that the new password isn't the same as the old one with a change of case.
Similar
Verifies that the new password isn't too much like the previous one.
Simple
Is the new password too simple? This is based on the length of the password and the number of
different types of characters (alpha, numeric, etc.) used.
Rotated
Is the new password a rotated version of the old password? (E.g., "billy" and "illyb")
Invalid arguments are logged with syslog(3).