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)