pam_timestamp(8) — Linux manual page

PAM_TIMESTAMP(8)            Linux-PAM Manual            PAM_TIMESTAMP(8)

NAME         top

       pam_timestamp - Authenticate using cached successful
       authentication attempts

SYNOPSIS         top

       pam_timestamp.so [timestampdir=directory]
                        [timestamp_timeout=number] [verbose] [debug]

DESCRIPTION         top

       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         top

       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         top

       The auth and session module types are provided.

RETURN VALUES         top

       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         top

       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         top

           auth sufficient pam_timestamp.so verbose
           auth required   pam_unix.so

           session required pam_unix.so
           session optional pam_timestamp.so

FILES         top

       /var/run/pam_timestamp/...
           timestamp files and directories

SEE ALSO         top

       pam_timestamp_check(8), pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)

AUTHOR         top

       pam_timestamp was written by Nalin Dahyabhai.

COLOPHON         top

       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
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

Linux-PAM Manual               12/22/2023               PAM_TIMESTAMP(8)

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