Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@×××××.de>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: A quick test of su [SOLVED]
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:06:39
Message-Id: hj9n10$cfr$1@ger.gmane.org
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Re: A quick test of su [SOLVED] by walt
1 On 01/20/2010 11:39 PM, walt wrote:
2 > On 01/19/2010 10:26 AM, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
3 >> On 01/19/2010 07:55 PM, walt wrote:
4 >>> On 01/18/2010 04:41 PM, walt wrote:
5 >>>
6 >>>> Here is what I see on both machines:
7 >>>>
8 >>>> $su
9 >>>> Password: <===== I type Ctrl-d here
10 >>>> Segmentation fault
11 >>>>
12 >>>> I've traced this problem to the pam_ssh package, which is supposed
13 >>>> to return a charstring containing the typed password, but it instead
14 >>>> returns a null pointer when I type Ctrl-d. Calamity ensues.
15 >>>
16 >>> The key here is the pam_ssh package, which apparently the rest of you
17 >>> don't use for authentication.
18 >>
19 >> Just a quick question: what do you need PAM for? No it's not a
20 >> rhetorical question. I always wondered what PAM is good for; to find
21 >> out, I completely removed everything PAM related from my system
22 >> ("-pam" in make.conf and then rebuild everything and then
23 >> depclean.) The system works exactly the same as before. So I'm left
24 >> wondering what PAM was doing in the first place?
25 >
26 > I'm no expert on PAM, but I've seen it used on every linux distribution
27 > that I've tried over the years. In the case I just described, I used it
28 > so I can identify myself with my ssh key, which is much more secure than
29 > a password. So, in general, pam is used to set security policy for how
30 > users can log in, change their passwords, etc. I'm not sure how I would
31 > have added ssh key authentication without pam. It's a good question.
32
33 Well, all of this is still working here without PAM, including keys
34 (I've set that option in the config file of the ssh deamon, not PAM.)

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A quick test of su [SOLVED] Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk>