Configuring shadow (using PAM)

[Larry]

On Sat, Dec 14, 2002 at 04:45:13PM +0100, Fernando Arbeiza wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> I have followed the BLFS book instructions about Shadow and Linux-PAM.
> After having installed and configured it, I tried to change the root's
> password. Then, passwd complains:
> 
>     passwd: Authentication information cannot be recovered
> 
> Well, that's my problem but, after reading some information, I think I
> have found the reason.
> 
> In the 'Configuring shadow' section of the book, the file
> /etc/pam.d/passwd reads:
> 
> cat > /etc/pam.d/other << "EOF"
> # Begin /etc/pam.d/passwd
> 
> password    required       pam_unix.so     md5 shadow use_authtok
> 
> # End /etc/pam.d/passwd
> EOF
> 
> I have read the man pages about Linux-PAM and the module pam_unix.so
> about the use_authok argument, and I think it is used to:
> 
>     force this module to set the new password to the one provided by the
>     previously stacked password module
> 
> Since there is no previous module, I think the use_authtok is
> superfluous. When I run 'passwd' after removing that argument, it seems
> to work OK.
> 
> Am I right or am I misinterpreting it?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> -- 
> Fernando Arbeiza
> arbeizaf [arroba(at)] ono [punto(dot)] com
> LFS en castellano:  <URL:http://www.escomposlinux.org/lfs-es>
> -- 
Thanks for the info and sorry for the inconvenience.  That setting came
from a hint and seemed reasonable, but I will look into it.  There are so
few PAM users that I don't believe anything in this catagory is tested
enough to prevent mistakes in PAM. I just wish the punishment was more
like an inconvience and less like a potential disaster.

Larry
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