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-<!--
-
- $Id$
-
- This template file was written by Andrew G. Morgan <morgan@kernel.org>
- adapted from text provided by Tim Baverstock.
--->
-
-<sect1>The login counter (tallying) module
-
-<sect2>Synopsis
-
-<p>
-<descrip>
-
-<tag><bf>Module Name:</bf></tag>
-pam_tally
-
-<tag><bf>Author[s]:</bf></tag>
-Tim Baverstock
-
-<tag><bf>Maintainer:</bf></tag>
-
-<tag><bf>Management groups provided:</bf></tag>
-auth; account
-
-<tag><bf>Cryptographically sensitive:</bf></tag>
-
-<tag><bf>Security rating:</bf></tag>
-
-<tag><bf>Clean code base:</bf></tag>
-
-<tag><bf>System dependencies:</bf></tag>
-A faillog file (default location /var/log/faillog)
-
-<tag><bf>Network aware:</bf></tag>
-
-</descrip>
-
-<sect2>Overview of module
-
-<p>
-This module maintains a count of attempted accesses, can reset count
-on success, can deny access if too many attempts fail.
-
-<p>
-pam_tally comes in two parts: <tt>pam_tally.so</tt> and
-<tt>pam_tally</tt>. The former is the PAM module and the latter, a
-stand-alone program. <tt>pam_tally</tt> is an (optional) application
-which can be used to interrogate and manipulate the counter file. It
-can display users' counts, set individual counts, or clear all
-counts. Setting artificially high counts may be useful for blocking
-users without changing their passwords. For example, one might find it
-useful to clear all counts every midnight from a cron job.
-
-<p>
-The counts file is organized as a binary-word array, indexed by
-uid. You can probably make sense of it with <tt>od</tt>, if you don't
-want to use the supplied appliction.
-
-<p>
-Note, there are some outstanding issues with this module:
-<tt>pam_tally</tt> is very dependant on <tt>getpw*()</tt> - a database
-of usernames would be much more flexible; the `keep a count of current
-logins' bit has been <tt>#ifdef</tt>'d out and you can only reset the
-counter on successful authentication, for now.
-
-<sect3>Generic options accepted by both components
-<p>
-<itemize>
-<item> <tt>onerr=</tt>(<tt>succeed</tt>|<tt>fail</tt>):
- if something weird happens, such as unable to open the file, how
- should the module react?
-<item> <tt>file=</tt><em>/where/to/keep/counts</em>:
- specify the file location for the counts.
- The default location is <tt>/var/log/faillog</tt>.
-</itemize>
-
-<sect2>Authentication component
-
-<p>
-<descrip>
-
-<tag><bf>Recognized arguments:</bf></tag>
-<tt>onerr=</tt>(<tt>succeed</tt>|<tt>fail</tt>);
-<tt>file=</tt>/where/to/keep/counts;
-<tt>no_magic_root</tt>
-
-<tag><bf>Description:</bf></tag>
-
-<p>
-The authentication component of this module increments the attempted
-login counter.
-
-<p>
-<tag><bf>Examples/suggested usage:</bf></tag>
-
-<p>
-The module argument <tt>no_magic_root</tt> is used to indicate that if
-the module is invoked by a user with uid=0, then the counter is
-incremented. The sys-admin should use this for daemon-launched
-services, like <tt>telnet</tt>/<tt>rsh</tt>/<tt>login</tt>. For user
-launched services, like <tt>su</tt>, this argument should be omitted.
-
-<p>
-By way of more explanation, when a process already running as root
-tries to access some service, the access is <em>magic</em>, and
-bypasses <tt>pam_tally</tt>'s checks: this is handy for <tt>su</tt>ing
-from root into an account otherwise blocked. However, for services
-like <tt>telnet</tt> or <tt>login</tt>, which always effectively run
-from the root account, root (ie everyone) shouldn't be granted this
-magic status, and the flag `no_magic_root' should be set in this
-situation, as noted in the summary above.
-
-</descrip>
-
-<sect2>Account component
-
-<p>
-<descrip>
-
-<tag><bf>Recognized arguments:</bf></tag>
-<tt>onerr=</tt>(<tt>succeed</tt>|<tt>fail</tt>);
-<tt>file=</tt>/where/to/keep/counts;
-<tt>deny=</tt><em>n</em>;
-<tt>no_magic_root</tt>;
-<tt>even_deny_root_account</tt>;
-<tt>reset</tt>;
-<tt>no_reset</tt>;
-<tt>per_user</tt>;
-<tt>no_lock_time</tt>
-
-<tag><bf>Description:</bf></tag>
-
-<p>
-The account component can deny access and/or reset the attempts
-counter. It also checks to make sure that the counts file is a plain
-file and not world writable.
-
-<tag><bf>Examples/suggested usage:</bf></tag>
-
-<p>
-The <tt>deny=</tt><em>n</em> option is used to deny access if tally
-for this user exceeds <em>n</em>. The presence of
-<tt>deny=</tt><em>n</em> changes the default for
-<tt>reset</tt>/<tt>no_reset</tt> to <tt>reset</tt>, unless the user
-trying to gain access is root and the <tt>no_magic_root</tt> option
-has NOT been specified.
-
-<p>
-The <tt>no_magic_root</tt> option ensures that access attempts by root
-DON'T ignore deny. Use this for daemon-based stuff, like
-<tt>telnet</tt>/<tt>rsh</tt>/<tt>login</tt>.
-
-<p>
-The <tt>even_deny_root_account</tt> option is used to ensure that the
-root account can become unavailable. <bf>Note</bf> that magic root
-trying to gain root bypasses this, but normal users can be locked out.
-
-<p>
-The <tt>reset</tt> option instructs the module to reset count to 0 on
-successful entry, even for magic root. The <tt>no_reset</tt> option is
-used to instruct the module to not reset the count on successful
-entry. This is the default unless <tt>deny</tt> exists and the user
-attempting access is NOT magic root.
-
-<p>
-If <tt>/var/log/faillog</tt> contains a non-zero <tt>.fail_max</tt>
-field for this user then the <tt>per_user</tt> module argument will
-ensure that the module uses this value and not the global
-<tt>deny=</tt><em>n</em> parameter.
-
-<p>
-The <tt>no_lock_time</tt> option is for ensuring that the module does
-not use the <tt>.fail_locktime</tt> field in /var/log/faillog for this
-user.
-
-<p>
-Normally, failed attempts to access root will <bf>NOT</bf> cause the
-root account to become blocked, to prevent denial-of-service: if your
-users aren't given shell accounts and root may only login via
-<tt>su</tt> or at the machine console (not
-<tt>telnet</tt>/<tt>rsh</tt>, etc), this is safe. If you really want
-root to be blocked for some given service, use
-<tt>even_deny_root_account</tt>.
-
-</descrip>
-
-<!--
-End of sgml insert for this module.
--->