PAM_ACCESS(8) Linux-PAM Manual PAM_ACCESS(8)
NAME
pam_access - PAM module for logdaemon style login access control
SYNOPSIS
pam_access.so [debug] [noaudit] [nodefgroup] [nodns] [quiet_log]
[accessfile=file] [fieldsep=sep] [listsep=sep]
DESCRIPTION
The pam_access PAM module is mainly for access management. It provides
logdaemon style login access control based on login names, host or
domain names, internet addresses or network numbers, or on terminal line
names, X $DISPLAY values, or PAM service names in case of non-networked
logins.
By default rules for access management are taken from config file
/etc/security/access.conf if you don't specify another file. Then
individual *.conf files from the /etc/security/access.d/ directory are
read. The files are parsed one after another in the order of the system
locale. The effect of the individual files is the same as if all the
files were concatenated together in the order of parsing. This means
that once a pattern is matched in some file no further files are parsed.
If a config file is explicitly specified with the accessfile option the
files in the above directory are not parsed.
If Linux PAM is compiled with audit support the module will report when
it denies access based on origin (host, tty, etc.).
OPTIONS
accessfile=/path/to/access.conf
Indicate an alternative access.conf style configuration file to
override the default. This can be useful when different services
need different access lists.
debug
A lot of debug information is printed with syslog(3).
noaudit
Do not report logins from disallowed hosts and ttys to the audit
subsystem.
nodefgroup
User tokens which are not enclosed in parentheses will not be
matched against the group database. The backwards compatible default
is to try the group database match even for tokens not enclosed in
parentheses.
nodns
Do not try to resolve tokens as hostnames, only IPv4 and IPv6
addresses will be resolved. Which means to allow login from a remote
host, the IP addresses need to be specified in access.conf.
quiet_log
Do not log denials with syslog(3).
fieldsep=separators
This option modifies the field separator character that pam_access
will recognize when parsing the access configuration file. For
example: fieldsep=| will cause the default `:' character to be
treated as part of a field value and `|' becomes the field
separator. Doing this may be useful in conjunction with a system
that wants to use pam_access with X based applications, since the
PAM_TTY item is likely to be of the form "hostname:0" which includes
a `:' character in its value. But you should not need this.
listsep=separators
This option modifies the list separator character that pam_access
will recognize when parsing the access configuration file. For
example: listsep=, will cause the default ` ' (space) and `\t' (tab)
characters to be treated as part of a list element value and `,'
becomes the only list element separator. Doing this may be useful on
a system with group information obtained from a Windows domain,
where the default built-in groups "Domain Users", "Domain Admins"
contain a space.
MODULE TYPES PROVIDED
All module types (auth, account, password and session) are provided.
RETURN VALUES
PAM_SUCCESS
Access was granted.
PAM_PERM_DENIED
Access was not granted.
PAM_IGNORE
pam_setcred was called which does nothing.
PAM_ABORT
Not all relevant data or options could be gotten.
PAM_USER_UNKNOWN
The user is not known to the system.
FILES
/etc/security/access.conf
Default configuration file
SEE ALSO
access.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(7).
AUTHORS
The logdaemon style login access control scheme was designed and
implemented by Wietse Venema. The pam_access PAM module was developed by
Alexei Nogin <alexei@nogin.dnttm.ru>. The IPv6 support and the
network(address) / netmask feature was developed and provided by Mike
Becher <mike.becher@lrz-muenchen.de>.
Linux-PAM 06/29/2025 PAM_ACCESS(8)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 07:17:50 CET 2025.