
Chapter 22. Overview of security on Linux 451
In contrast, however, if the program is compiled with the Pluggable Authentication
Module (PAM) support, you can switch between several authentication methods
without having to recompile each program. This uses the power of Linux’s share
libraries.
The advantages of using PAM lie in its
transparent authentication method. In a
heterogeneous network, for example, the system administrator wants to
authenticate the users against a NT box, or a NIS service. If there is a PAM
module for such authentication, the administrator can perform the authentication
easily, without having to maintain several diff ...