pam_timestamp(8) — Linux manual page
PAM_TIMESTAMP(8) Linux-PAM Manual PAM_TIMESTAMP(8)
NAME
pam_timestamp - Authenticate using cached successful
authentication attempts
SYNOPSIS
pam_timestamp.so [timestampdir=directory]
[timestamp_timeout=number] [verbose] [debug]
DESCRIPTION
In a nutshell, pam_timestamp caches successful authentication
attempts, and allows you to use a recent successful attempt as
the basis for authentication. This is similar mechanism which is
used in sudo.
When an application opens a session using pam_timestamp, a
timestamp file is created in the timestampdir directory for the
user. When an application attempts to authenticate the user, a
pam_timestamp will treat a sufficiently recent timestamp file as
grounds for succeeding.
OPTIONS
timestampdir=directory
Specify an alternate directory where pam_timestamp creates
timestamp files.
timestamp_timeout=number
How long should pam_timestamp treat timestamp as valid after
their last modification date (in seconds). Default is 300
seconds.
verbose
Attempt to inform the user when access is granted.
debug
Turns on debugging messages sent to syslog(3).
MODULE TYPES PROVIDED
The auth and session module types are provided.
RETURN VALUES
PAM_AUTH_ERR
The module was not able to retrieve the user name or no valid
timestamp file was found.
PAM_SUCCESS
Everything was successful.
PAM_SESSION_ERR
Timestamp file could not be created or updated.
NOTES
Users can get confused when they are not always asked for
passwords when running a given program. Some users reflexively
begin typing information before noticing that it is not being
asked for.
EXAMPLES
auth sufficient pam_timestamp.so verbose
auth required pam_unix.so
session required pam_unix.so
session optional pam_timestamp.so
FILES
/var/run/pam_timestamp/...
timestamp files and directories
SEE ALSO
pam_timestamp_check(8), pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)
AUTHOR
pam_timestamp was written by Nalin Dahyabhai.
COLOPHON
This page is part of the linux-pam (Pluggable Authentication
Modules for Linux) project. Information about the project can be
found at ⟨http://www.linux-pam.org/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see ⟨//www.linux-pam.org/⟩. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/linux-pam/linux-pam.git⟩ on 2023-12-22. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2023-12-18.) If you discover any rendering
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