pwauth(8) [debian man page]

PWAUTH(8)						      System Manager's Manual							 PWAUTH(8)

NAME

       pwauth - authenticator for mod_authnz_external and the Apache HTTP Daemon

SYNOPSIS

       pwauth

DESCRIPTION

       Pwauth  is an authenticator designed to be used with mod_auth_external or mod_authnz_external and the Apache HTTP Daemon to support reason-
       ably secure web authentication out of the system password database on most versions of Unix. Particulary -  secure  authentication  against
       PAM.

       The  simplest test pwauth is to start a root shell and just run pwauth. It will attempt to read the login and password from standard input,
       so type a login name, hit return, then type a password, and hit return (the password will echo on your screen). The check the  status  code
       that was returned (in csh: "echo $status" in sh: "echo $?").

       If  the	login/password were correct you should get a zero status code. If not, you will get some other value. See below the list of status
       codes to find the meaning of the various values returned. Any values 50 or greater indicate a configuration error.

STATUS CODES


       0 STATUS_OK
	      Login OK.

       1 STATUS_UNKNOWN
	      Nonexistant login or (for some configurations) incorrect password.

       2 STATUS_INVALID
	      Incorrect password (for some configurations).

       3 STATUS_BLOCKED
	      Uid number is below MIN_UNIX_UID value configured in config.h.

       4 STATUS_EXPIRED
	      Login ID has expired.

       5 STATUS_PW_EXPIRED
	      Login's password has expired.

       6 SSTATUS_NOLOGIN
	      Logins to system have been turned off (usually by /etc/nologin file).

       7 STATUS_MANYFAILES
	      Limit on number of bad logins exceeded.

       50 STATUS_INT_USER
	      pwauth was invoked by a uid not on the SERVER_UIDS list. If you get this error code, you probably have SERVER_UIDS  set  incorrectly
	      in pwauth's config.h file.

       51 STATUS_INT_ARGS
	      pwauth  was not given a login & password to check. The means the passing of data from mod_auth_external to pwauth is messed up. Most
	      likely one is trying to pass data via environment variables, while the other is trying to pass data via a pipe.

       52 STATUS_INT_ERR
	      one of several rare and unlikely internal errors occurred. You'll have to read the source code to figure these out.

       53 STATUS_INT_NOROOT
	      pwauth was not able to read the password database. Usually this means it is not running as root. (PAM and login.conf  configurations
	      will return 1 in this case.)

AUTHOR

       pwauth was written by Jan Wolter <jan@unixpapa.com>.

       This manual page was written by Hai Zaar <haizaar@haizaar.com>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).

								    2009-05-02								 PWAUTH(8)

Check Out this Related Man Page

su(1) General Commands Manual su(1)

Name
su - substitute a user ID

Syntax
su [username]

su - [username]

su -f [username]

Description
The command requests the password of the specified username. If the correct password is given, changes to that username without changing
the current directory. The user environment is unchanged except for HOME and SHELL which are taken from the password file entry for user-
name. The shell that is run is also taken from the password file entry for username. The new user ID stays in force until the shell
exits.

If no username is specified, `root' is assumed. To remind the superuser of his responsibilities, the shell substitutes `#' for its usual
prompt.

Options
-f Prevents from executing the .cshrc file, making start up faster.

- Simulates a full login.

Diagnostics
Sorry
An invalid password was supplied for the specified username.

Unknown login: username
The specified username was not found in the passwd database.

No directory
The home directory for the username is not accessible at this time (only with ``-'' argument).

No shell
The shell specified in the passwd database entry for username could not be executed.

Kerberos initialization failure
Consult your system administrator.

If enhanced security features are enabled the following error messages are also possible:

Requires secure terminal
Attempt to su to UID 0 on a line that is not marked secure in

User's password has expired
Access is denied because the password for username is expired.

This account is disabled
Access is denied because the auth entry corresponding to username is marked disabled.

Files
Log file of anyone who became
root, with a date mark.

See Also
csh(1), sh(1), passwd(5yp), environ(7), edauth(8)
Security Guide for Administrators
Security Guide for Users

su(1)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

pwauth(8) [debian man page]

Check Out this Related Man Page