pam_get_authtok 3 Linux-PAM Manual pam_get_authtok pam_get_authtok_verify pam_get_authtok_noverify get authentication token #include <security/pam_ext.h> int pam_get_authtok pam_handle_t *pamh int item const char **authtok const char *prompt int pam_get_authtok_noverify pam_handle_t *pamh const char **authtok const char *prompt int pam_get_authtok_verify pam_handle_t *pamh const char **authtok const char *prompt The pam_get_authtok function returns the cached authentication token, or prompts the user if no token is currently cached. It is intended for internal use by Linux-PAM and PAM service modules. Upon successful return, authtok contains a pointer to the value of the authentication token. Note, this is a pointer to the actual data and should not be free()'ed or over-written! The prompt argument specifies a prompt to use if no token is cached. If a NULL pointer is given, pam_get_authtok uses pre-defined prompts. The following values are supported for item: PAM_AUTHTOK Returns the current authentication token. Called from pam_sm_chauthtok3 pam_get_authtok will ask the user to confirm the new token by retyping it. If a prompt was specified, "Retype" will be used as prefix. PAM_OLDAUTHTOK Returns the previous authentication token when changing authentication tokens. The pam_get_authtok_noverify function can only be used for changing the password (from pam_sm_chauthtok3 ). It returns the cached authentication token, or prompts the user if no token is currently cached. The difference to pam_get_authtok is, that this function does not ask a second time for the password to verify it. Upon successful return, authtok contains a pointer to the value of the authentication token. Note, this is a pointer to the actual data and should not be free()'ed or over-written! The pam_get_authtok_verify function can only be used to verify a password for mistypes gotten by pam_get_authtok_noverify3 . This function asks a second time for the password and verify it with the password provided by authtok argument. In case of an error, the value of authtok is undefined. Else this argument will point to the actual data and should not be free()'ed or over-written! pam_get_authtok honours the following module options: try_first_pass Before prompting the user for their password, the module first tries the previous stacked module's password in case that satisfies this module as well. use_first_pass The argument use_first_pass forces the module to use a previous stacked modules password and will never prompt the user - if no password is available or the password is not appropriate, the user will be denied access. use_authtok When password changing enforce the module to set the new token to the one provided by a previously stacked password module. If no token is available token changing will fail. authtok_type=XXX The default action is for the module to use the following prompts when requesting passwords: "New UNIX password: " and "Retype UNIX password: ". The example word UNIX can be replaced with this option, by default it is empty. PAM_AUTH_ERR Authentication token could not be retrieved. PAM_AUTHTOK_ERR New authentication could not be retrieved. PAM_SUCCESS Authentication token was successfully retrieved. PAM_SYSTEM_ERR No space for an authentication token was provided. PAM_TRY_AGAIN New authentication tokens mismatch. pam8 The pam_get_authtok function is a Linux-PAM extensions.