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PAM_SSH(8)		     System Manager's Manual		      PAM_SSH(8)

NAME
     pam_ssh -- authentication and session management with SSH private keys

SYNOPSIS
     [service-name] module-type control-flag pam_ssh [options]

DESCRIPTION
     The SSH authentication service module for PAM, pam_ssh provides functional-
     ity  for  two  PAM  categories:  authentication and session management.  In
     terms of the module-type parameter, they are the "auth" and "session"  fea-
     tures.

   SSH Authentication Module
     The SSH authentication component provides a function to verify the identity
     of  a  user (pam_sm_authenticate()), by prompting the user for a passphrase
     and verifying that it can decrypt the target  user's  SSH	key  using  that
     passphrase.

     The following options may be passed to the authentication module:

     use_first_pass  If the authentication module is not the first in the stack,
		     and  a  previous  module obtained the user's password, that
		     password is used to authenticate the user.  If this  fails,
		     the authentication module returns failure without prompting
		     the  user for a password.	This option has no effect if the
		     authentication module is the first in the stack, or  if  no
		     previous modules obtained the user's password.

     try_first_pass  This option is similar to the use_first_pass option, except
		     that if the previously obtained password fails, the user is
		     prompted for another password.

     nullok	     Normally, keys with no passphrase are ignored for authenti-
		     cation  purposes.	 If  this  option  is  set, keys with no
		     passphrase will be taken into consideration,  allowing  the
		     user to log in with a blank password.

   SSH Session Management Module
     The  SSH  session	management  component  provides  functions  to	initiate
     (pam_sm_open_session()) and  terminate  (pam_sm_close_session())  sessions.
     The pam_sm_open_session() function starts an SSH agent, passing it any pri-
     vate  keys it decrypted during the authentication phase, and sets the envi-
     ronment variables the agent specifies.  The pam_sm_close_session() function
     kills the previously started SSH agent by sending it a SIGTERM.

     The following options may be passed to the session management module:

     want_agent  Start an agent even if no keys were decrypted	during	the  au-
		 thentication phase.

FILES
     $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa	    SSH2 RSA key
     $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa	    SSH2 DSA key
     $HOME/.ssh/id_ecdsa    SSH2 ECDSA key
     $HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519  SSH2 Ed25519 key

SEE ALSO
     ssh-agent(1), pam(3), pam.conf(5)

AUTHORS
     The  pam_ssh module was originally written by Andrew J. Korty <ajk@iu.edu>.
     The current  implementation  was  developed  for  the  FreeBSD  Project  by
     ThinkSec  AS  and NAI Labs, the Security Research Division of Network Asso-
     ciates, Inc. under DARPA/SPAWAR  contract	N66001-01-C-8035  ("CBOSS"),  as
     part  of the DARPA CHATS research program.  This manual page was written by
     Mark R V Murray <markm@FreeBSD.org>.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	 October 7, 2011		      PAM_SSH(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pam_ssh&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports.quarterly>

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