.\" Copyright 1999 Red Hat Software, Inc.

.\" Written by Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com>

.TH pam_console 8 2005/10/4 "Red Hat" "System Administrator's Manual"

.SH NAME

pam_console \- determine user owning the system console

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B session optional pam_console.so

.br

.B auth required pam_console.so

.SH DESCRIPTION

pam_console.so is designed to give users at the physical console

(virtual terminals and local xdm-managed X sessions by default, but

that is configurable) capabilities that they would not otherwise have,

and to take those capabilities away when the are no longer logged in at

the console.  It provides two main kinds of capabilities: file permissions

and authentication.

When a user logs in at the console and \fBno other user is currently

logged in at the console\fP, pam_console.so will run handler programs

specified in the file /etc/security/console.handlers such as

pam_console_apply which changes permissions and ownership of files as

described in the file /etc/security/console.perms.

That user may then log in on other terminals that are considered part

of the console, and as long as the user is still logged in at any one

of those terminals, that user will own those devices.  When the user

logs out of the last terminal, the console may be taken by the next

user to log in.  Other users who have logged in at the console during

the time that the first user was logged in will not be given ownership

of the devices unless they log in on one of the terminals; having done

so on any one terminal, the next user will own those devices until

he or she has logged out of every terminal that is part of the physical

console.  Then the race can start for the next user.  In practice, this

is not a problem; the physical console is not generally in use by many

people at the same time, and pam_console.so just tries to do the right

thing in weird cases.

When an application attempts to authenticate the user \fBand this user

is already logged in at the console\fP, pam_console.so checks whether

there is a file in /etc/security/console.apps/ directory with the same name

as the application servicename, and if such a file exists, authentication

succeeds. This way pam_console may be utilized to run some system

applications (reboots, config tools) without root password,

or to enter user password on the first system login only.

.SH ARGUMENTS

.IP debug

turns on debugging

.IP allow_nonroot_tty

gain console locks and change permissions even if the TTY's owner is not root.

.IP handlersfile=\fIfilename\fP

tells pam_console.so to get the list of the handlers from a different

file than /etc/security/console.handlers

.\" .IP glob

.\" \fBnot yet implemented\fP interpret strings as globs instead of

.\" regexp expressions.

.SH EXAMPLE

\fB/etc/pam.d/some-system-tool\fP:

.br

auth sufficient pam_rootok.so

.br

auth required pam_console.so

.br

.br

\fB/etc/pam.d/some-login-service\fP:

.br

auth sufficient pam_console.so

.br

auth required pam_unix.so

.br

session required pam_unix.so

.br

session optional pam_console.so

.br

.SH FILES

\fI/var/run/console/\fP

.br

\fI/var/run/console/console.lock\fP

.br

\fI/etc/security/console.apps\fP

.br

\fI/etc/security/console.handlers\fP

.SH SECURITY NOTES

When pam_console "auth" is used for login services which provide

possibility of remote login, it is necessary to make sure the application

correctly sets PAM_RHOST variable, or to deny remote logins completely.

Currently, /bin/login (invoked from telnetd) and gdm is OK, others may be not.

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.BR console.perms (5)

.br

.BR console.apps (5)

.br

.BR console.handlers (5)

.br

.BR pam_console_apply (8)

.br

\fI/usr/share/doc/pam*/html/index.html\fP

.SH BUGS

Let's hope not, but if you find any, please report them via the "Bug Track"

link at http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/

.SH AUTHORS

Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com>

.br

Support of console.handlers and other improvements by

Tomas Mraz <tmraz@redhat.com>