pam_exec 8 Linux-PAM Manual pam_exec PAM module which calls an external command pam_exec.so debug expose_authtok seteuid quiet log=file command ... pam_exec is a PAM module that can be used to run an external command. The child's environment is set to the current PAM environment list, as returned by pam_getenvlist3 In addition, the following PAM items are exported as environment variables: PAM_RHOST, PAM_RUSER, PAM_SERVICE, PAM_TTY, PAM_USER and PAM_TYPE, which contains one of the module types: account, auth, password, open_session and close_session. debug Print debug information. expose_authtok During authentication the calling command can read the password from stdin3 . log=file The output of the command is appended to file quiet Per default pam_exec.so will echo the exit status of the external command if it fails. Specifying this option will suppress the message. seteuid Per default pam_exec.so will execute the external command with the real user ID of the calling process. Specifying this option means the command is run with the effective user ID. All module types (auth, account, password and session) are provided. PAM_SUCCESS The external command was run successfully. PAM_SERVICE_ERR No argument or a wrong number of arguments were given. PAM_SYSTEM_ERR A system error occurred or the command to execute failed. PAM_IGNORE pam_setcred was called, which does not execute the command. Add the following line to /etc/pam.d/passwd to rebuild the NIS database after each local password change: passwd optional pam_exec.so seteuid make -C /var/yp This will execute the command make -C /var/yp with effective user ID. pam.conf5 , pam.d5 , pam8 pam_exec was written by Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@thkukuk.de>.