pam_console(8) System Administrator's Manual pam_console(8)
NAME
pam_console - determine user owning the system console
SYNOPSIS
session optional pam_console.so
auth required pam_console.so
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 capa‐
bilities: file permissions and authentication.
When a user logs in at the console and no other user is currently logged in at the console, 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 and this user is already logged in at the console,
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 pass‐
word on the first system login only.
ARGUMENTS
debug turns on debugging
allow_nonroot_tty
gain console locks and change permissions even if the TTY's owner is not root.
handlersfile=filename
tells pam_console.so to get the list of the handlers from a different file than /etc/security/con‐
sole.handlers
EXAMPLE
/etc/pam.d/some-system-tool:
auth sufficient pam_rootok.so
auth required pam_console.so
/etc/pam.d/some-login-service:
auth sufficient pam_console.so
auth required pam_unix.so
session required pam_unix.so
session optional pam_console.so
FILES
/var/run/console/
/var/run/console/console.lock
pam_console_apply(8)
/usr/share/doc/pam*/html/index.html
BUGS
Let's hope not, but if you find any, please report them via the "Bug Track" link at http://bugzilla.red‐
hat.com/bugzilla/
AUTHORS
Michael K. Johnson <[email protected]>
Support of console.handlers and other improvements by Tomas Mraz <[email protected]>
Red Hat 2005/10/4 pam_console(8)
Back to main site | Back to man page index