PAM_SM_AUTHENTICATE(3)						 Linux-PAM Manual					    PAM_SM_AUTHENTICATE(3)

NAME

       pam_sm_authenticate - PAM service function for user authentication

SYNOPSIS

       #define PAM_SM_AUTH

       #include <security/pam_modules.h>

       PAM_EXTERN int pam_sm_authenticate(pam_handle_t *pamh, int flags, int argc, const char **argv);

DESCRIPTION

       The pam_sm_authenticate function is the service module's implementation of the pam_authenticate(3) interface.

       This function performs the task of authenticating the user.

       Valid flags, which may be logically OR'd with PAM_SILENT, are:

       PAM_SILENT
	   Do not emit any messages.

       PAM_DISALLOW_NULL_AUTHTOK
	   Return PAM_AUTH_ERR if the database of authentication tokens for this authentication mechanism has a NULL entry for the user. Without
	   this flag, such a NULL token will lead to a success without the user being prompted.

RETURN VALUES

       PAM_AUTH_ERR
	   Authentication failure.

       PAM_CRED_INSUFFICIENT
	   For some reason the application does not have sufficient credentials to authenticate the user.

       PAM_AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL
	   The modules were not able to access the authentication information. This might be due to a network or hardware failure etc.

       PAM_SUCCESS
	   The authentication token was successfully updated.

       PAM_USER_UNKNOWN
	   The supplied username is not known to the authentication service.

       PAM_MAXTRIES
	   One or more of the authentication modules has reached its limit of tries authenticating the user. Do not try again.

SEE ALSO

       pam(3), pam_authenticate(3), pam_sm_setcred(3), pam_strerror(3), PAM(8)

Linux-PAM Manual						    06/04/2011						    PAM_SM_AUTHENTICATE(3)