Linux in a Windows World

Summary

PAM is a powerful tool for managing authentication options in Linux. As a modular tool, PAM is easily expanded—at least, easily when compared to recompiling all of your servers and other programs that require authentication. PAM is a very flexible tool, and some of this flexibility manifests itself in a plethora of options, some of which interact in peculiar ways. Understanding at least the more common of these options will help you adapt your PAM configuration to suit your needs, including adding network authentication tools such as NT domain controllers, LDAP servers, and Kerberos realms to your system. Actually creating a working configuration is likely to take some trial and error, but the examples presented here should set you on the right path.