[gentoo-user] pam_permit on optional by default on pambase-20101024, but documentation says very dangerous

[Mark David Dumlao]

Hi.
I'm usually slow at updating my gentoo machine, and I think I was
behind by about a month from last update. Anyways, I noticed that the
recent pambase-20101024 has pam_permit optional on for auth, account
and password in /etc/pam.d/system-auth.

That didn't sound real neat, so Iooked it up in the manual and it says
"very dangerous, use with extreme caution."

Following their advice, I look up pam_permit and try to understand why
anyone would put it on by default, but the google hits I get on
pam_permit are very terse.

What does pam_permit do when set to optional for auth, account,
password and session? Clearly I don't want my pam to start letting in
everybody, but I doubt the gentoo team would either, so maybe I'm just
misunderstanding.

In the meantime I didn't allow it in.
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