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PAM_SSH(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual PAM_SSH(8)
NAME
pam_ssh - authentication and session management with SSH private keys
SYNOPSIS
[service-name] module-type control-flag pam_ssh [options]
DESCRIPTION
The SSH authentication service module for PAM, pam_ssh provides
functionality for two PAM categories: authentication and session
management. In terms of the module-type parameter, they are the "auth"
and "session" features.
SSH Authentication Module
The SSH authentication component provides a function to verify the
identity of a user (pam_sm_authenticate()), by prompting the user for a
passphrase and verifying that it can decrypt the target user's SSH key
using that passphrase.
The following options may be passed to the authentication module:
use_first_pass If the authentication module is not the first in the
stack, and a previous module obtained the user's
password, that password is used to authenticate the user.
If this fails, the authentication module returns failure
without prompting the user for a password. This option
has no effect if the authentication module is the first
in the stack, or if no previous modules obtained the
user's password.
try_first_pass This option is similar to the use_first_pass option,
except that if the previously obtained password fails,
the user is prompted for another password.
nullok Normally, keys with no passphrase are ignored for
authentication purposes. If this option is set, keys
with no passphrase will be taken into consideration,
allowing the user to log in with a blank password.
SSH Session Management Module
The SSH session management component provides functions to initiate
(pam_sm_open_session()) and terminate (pam_sm_close_session()) sessions.
The pam_sm_open_session() function starts an SSH agent, passing it any
private keys it decrypted during the authentication phase, and sets the
environment variables the agent specifies. The pam_sm_close_session()
function kills the previously started SSH agent by sending it a SIGTERM.
The following options may be passed to the session management module:
want_agent Start an agent even if no keys were decrypted during the
authentication phase.
FILES
$HOME/.ssh/id_rsa SSH2 RSA key
$HOME/.ssh/id_dsa SSH2 DSA key
$HOME/.ssh/id_ecdsa SSH2 ECDSA key
$HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519 SSH2 Ed25519 key
Network Associates, Inc. under DARPA/SPAWAR contract N66001-01-C-8035
("CBOSS"), as part of the DARPA CHATS research program. This manual page
was written by Mark R V Murray <markm@FreeBSD.org>.
FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE October 7, 2011 FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE