Linux man pages

Section (3) pam_setcred

Linux manual pages	Section 3

Name

pam_setcred — establish / delete user credentials

Synopsis

#include <security/pam_appl.h>

`int pam_setcred(`	pam_handle_t *`pamh`,
	int `flags)`;

DESCRIPTION

The pam_setcred function is used to establish, maintain and delete the credentials of a user. It should be called to set the credentials after a user has been authenticated and before a session is opened for the user (with pam_open_session(3)). The credentials should be deleted after the session has been closed (with pam_close_session(3)).

A credential is something that the user possesses. It is some property, such as a Kerberos ticket, or a supplementary group membership that make up the uniqueness of a given user. On a Linux system the user_zsingle_quotesz_s UID and GID_zsingle_quotesz_s are credentials too. However, it has been decided that these properties (along with the default supplementary groups of which the user is a member) are credentials that should be set directly by the application and not by PAM. Such credentials should be established, by the application, prior to a call to this function. For example, initgroups(2) (or equivalent) should have been performed.

Valid flags, any one of which, may be logically OR_zsingle_quotesz_d with PAM_SILENT, are:

PAM_ESTABLISH_CRED: Initialize the credentials for the user.
PAM_DELETE_CRED: Delete the user_zsingle_quotesz_s credentials.
PAM_REINITIALIZE_CRED: Fully reinitialize the user_zsingle_quotesz_s credentials.
PAM_REFRESH_CRED: Extend the lifetime of the existing credentials.

RETURN VALUES

PAM_BUF_ERR: Memory buffer error.
PAM_CRED_ERR: Failed to set user credentials.
PAM_CRED_EXPIRED: User credentials are expired.
PAM_CRED_UNAVAIL: Failed to retrieve user credentials.
PAM_SUCCESS: Data was successful stored.
PAM_SYSTEM_ERR: A NULL pointer was submitted as PAM handle, the function was called by a module or another system error occured.
PAM_USER_UNKNOWN: User is not known to an authentication module.