pam_authenticate(3) [redhat man page]

PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)					     App. Programmers' Manual					       PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)

NAME

       pam_authenticate - authenticate a user

SYNOPSIS

       #include <security/pam_appl.h>

       int pam_authenticate(pam_handle_t *pamh, int  flags);

DESCRIPTION

       pam_authenticate

       Use  this function to authenticate an applicant user.  It is linked dynamically to the authentication modules by Linux-PAM.  It is the task
       of these module to perform such an authentication.  The specific nature of the authentication is not the concern of the application.

       Following successful completion, the name of the authenticated user will be present in the Linux-PAM  item  PAM_USER.   This  item  may	be
       recovered with a call to pam_get_item(3).

       The  application  developer should note that the modules may request that the user enter their username via the conversation mechanism (see
       pam_start(3)).  Should this be the case, the user-prompt string can be set via the PAM_USER_PROMPT item (see pam_set_item(3)).

RETURN VALUE

       On success PAM_SUCCESS is returned.  All other returns should be considered authentication failures and will be delayed by an amount speci-
       fied with prior calls to pam_fail_delay(3).  Specific failures that demand special attention are the following:

       PAM_ABORT
	      the application should exit immediately. Of course, pam_end(3) should be called first.

       PAM_MAXTRIES
	      the application has tried too many times to authenticate the user, authentication should not be attempted again.

ERRORS

       May be translated to text with pam_strerror(3).

CONFORMING TO

       DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.

BUGS

       none known.

SEE ALSO

       pam_start(3), pam_get_item(3) pam_fail_delay(3) and pam_strerror(3).

       Also, see the three Linux-PAM Guides, for System administrators, module developers, and application developers.

Linux-PAM 0.55							    1996 Dec 9						       PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)

PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)						 Linux-PAM Manual					       PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)

NAME

       pam_authenticate - account authentication

SYNOPSIS

       #include <security/pam_appl.h>

       int pam_authenticate(pam_handle_t *pamh, int flags);

DESCRIPTION

       The pam_authenticate function is used to authenticate the user. The user is required to provide an authentication token depending upon the
       authentication service, usually this is a password, but could also be a finger print.

       The PAM service module may request that the user enter their username vio the the conversation mechanism (see pam_start(3) and
       pam_conv(3)). The name of the authenticated user will be present in the PAM item PAM_USER. This item may be recovered with a call to
       pam_get_item(3).

       The pamh argument is an authentication handle obtained by a prior call to pam_start(). The flags argument is the binary or of zero or more
       of the following values:

       PAM_SILENT
	   Do not emit any messages.

       PAM_DISALLOW_NULL_AUTHTOK
	   The PAM module service should return PAM_AUTH_ERR if the user does not have a registered authentication token.

RETURN VALUES

       PAM_ABORT
	   The application should exit immediately after calling pam_end(3) first.

       PAM_AUTH_ERR
	   The user was not authenticated.

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

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

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

       PAM_SUCCESS
	   The user was successfully authenticated.

       PAM_USER_UNKNOWN
	   User unknown to authentication service.

SEE ALSO

       pam_start(3), pam_setcred(3), pam_chauthtok(3), pam_strerror(3), pam(7)

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