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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><title>6.32. pam_tally - login counter (tallying) module</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.78.1"><link rel="home" href="Linux-PAM_SAG.html" title="The Linux-PAM System Administrators' Guide"><link rel="up" href="sag-module-reference.html" title="Chapter 6. A reference guide for available modules"><link rel="prev" href="sag-pam_succeed_if.html" title="6.31. pam_succeed_if - test account characteristics"><link rel="next" href="sag-pam_tally2.html" title="6.33. pam_tally2 - login counter (tallying) module"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">6.32. pam_tally - login counter (tallying) module</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sag-pam_succeed_if.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 6. A reference guide for available modules</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sag-pam_tally2.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="sag-pam_tally"></a>6.32. pam_tally - login counter (tallying) module</h2></div></div></div><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">pam_tally.so</code>  [
	file=<em class="replaceable"><code>/path/to/counter</code></em>
      ] [
        onerr=[<em class="replaceable"><code>fail</code></em>|<em class="replaceable"><code>succeed</code></em>]
      ] [
        magic_root
      ] [
        even_deny_root_account
      ] [
        deny=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>
      ] [
        lock_time=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>
      ] [
        unlock_time=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>
      ] [
        per_user
      ] [
        no_lock_time
      ] [
        no_reset
      ] [
        audit
      ] [
        silent
      ] [
        no_log_info
      ]</p></div><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">pam_tally</code>  [
	--file <em class="replaceable"><code>/path/to/counter</code></em>
      ] [
	--user <em class="replaceable"><code>username</code></em>
      ] [
	--reset[=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>]
      ] [
        --quiet
      ]</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="sag-pam_tally-description"></a>6.32.1. DESCRIPTION</h3></div></div></div><p>
      This module maintains a count of attempted accesses, can
      reset count on success, can deny access if too many attempts
      fail.
    </p><p>
      pam_tally has several limitations, which are solved with
      pam_tally2. For this reason pam_tally is deprecated and
      will be removed in a future release.
    </p><p>
      pam_tally comes in two parts:
      <span class="emphasis"><em>pam_tally.so</em></span> and
      <span class="command"><strong>pam_tally</strong></span>. The former is the PAM module and
      the latter, a stand-alone program. <span class="command"><strong>pam_tally</strong></span>
      is an (optional) application which can be used to interrogate and
      manipulate the counter file. It can display users' counts, set
      individual counts, or clear all counts. Setting artificially high
      counts may be useful for blocking users without changing their
      passwords. For example, one might find it useful to clear all counts
      every midnight from a cron job. The
      <span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">faillog</span>(8)</span> command can be used instead of pam_tally to to
      maintain the counter file.
    </p><p>
      Normally, failed attempts to access <span class="emphasis"><em>root</em></span> will
      <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> cause the root account to become
      blocked, to prevent denial-of-service: if your users aren't given
      shell accounts and root may only login via <span class="command"><strong>su</strong></span> or
      at the machine console (not telnet/rsh, etc), this is safe.
    </p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="sag-pam_tally-options"></a>6.32.2. OPTIONS</h3></div></div></div><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">
          GLOBAL OPTIONS
        </span></dt><dd><p>
            This can be used for <span class="emphasis"><em>auth</em></span> and
            <span class="emphasis"><em>account</em></span> module types.
          </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">onerr=[<em class="replaceable"><code>fail</code></em>|<em class="replaceable"><code>succeed</code></em>]</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  If something weird happens (like unable to open the file),
                  return with <span class="errorcode">PAM_SUCCESS</span> if
                  <code class="option">onerr=<em class="replaceable"><code>succeed</code></em></code>
                  is given, else with the corresponding PAM error code.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">file=<em class="replaceable"><code>/path/to/counter</code></em></code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  File where to keep counts. Default is
                  <code class="filename">/var/log/faillog</code>.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">audit</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Will log the user name into the system log if the user is not found.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">silent</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Don't print informative messages.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">no_log_info</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Don't log informative messages via <span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">syslog</span>(3)</span>.
                </p></dd></dl></div></dd><dt><span class="term">
          AUTH OPTIONS
        </span></dt><dd><p>
            Authentication phase first checks if user should be denied
            access and if not it increments attempted login counter. Then
            on call to <span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">pam_setcred</span>(3)</span> it resets the attempts counter.
          </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">deny=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Deny access if tally for this user exceeds
                  <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">lock_time=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Always deny for <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em> seconds
                  after failed attempt.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">unlock_time=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Allow access after <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em> seconds
                  after failed attempt. If this option is used the user will
                  be locked out for the specified amount of time after he
                  exceeded his maximum allowed attempts. Otherwise the
                  account is locked until the lock is removed by a manual
                  intervention of the system administrator.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">magic_root</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  If the module is invoked by a user with uid=0 the
                  counter is not incremented. The sysadmin should use this
                  for user launched services, like <span class="command"><strong>su</strong></span>,
                  otherwise this argument should be omitted.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">no_lock_time</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Do not use the .fail_locktime field in
                  <code class="filename">/var/log/faillog</code> for this user.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">no_reset</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Don't reset count on successful entry, only decrement.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">even_deny_root_account</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Root account can become unavailable.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">per_user</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  If <code class="filename">/var/log/faillog</code> contains a non-zero
                  .fail_max/.fail_locktime field for this user then use it
                  instead of <code class="option">deny=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></code>/
                  <code class="option">lock_time=<em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></code> parameter.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">no_lock_time</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Don't use .fail_locktime filed in
                  <code class="filename">/var/log/faillog</code> for this user.
                </p></dd></dl></div></dd><dt><span class="term">
          ACCOUNT OPTIONS
        </span></dt><dd><p>
            Account phase resets attempts counter if the user is
            <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> magic root.
            This phase can be used optionally for services which don't call
            <span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">pam_setcred</span>(3)</span> correctly or if the reset should be done regardless
            of the failure of the account phase of other modules.
          </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">magic_root</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  If the module is invoked by a user with uid=0 the
                  counter is not incremented. The sysadmin should use this
                  for user launched services, like <span class="command"><strong>su</strong></span>,
                  otherwise this argument should be omitted.
                </p></dd><dt><span class="term">
                <code class="option">no_reset</code>
              </span></dt><dd><p>
                  Don't reset count on successful entry, only decrement.
                </p></dd></dl></div></dd></dl></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="sag-pam_tally-types"></a>6.32.3. MODULE TYPES PROVIDED</h3></div></div></div><p>
      The <code class="option">auth</code> and <code class="option">account</code>
      module types are provided.
    </p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="sag-pam_tally-return_values"></a>6.32.4. RETURN VALUES</h3></div></div></div><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">PAM_AUTH_ERR</span></dt><dd><p>
            A invalid option was given, the module was not able
            to retrieve the user name, no valid counter file
            was found, or too many failed logins.
          </p></dd><dt><span class="term">PAM_SUCCESS</span></dt><dd><p>
            Everything was successful.
          </p></dd><dt><span class="term">PAM_USER_UNKNOWN</span></dt><dd><p>
	    User not known.
          </p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="sag-pam_tally-examples"></a>6.32.5. EXAMPLES</h3></div></div></div><p>
      Add the following line to <code class="filename">/etc/pam.d/login</code> to
      lock the account after too many failed logins. The number of
      allowed fails is specified by <code class="filename">/var/log/faillog</code>
      and needs to be set with pam_tally or <span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">faillog</span>(8)</span> before.
    </p><pre class="programlisting">
auth     required       pam_securetty.so
auth     required       pam_tally.so per_user
auth     required       pam_env.so
auth     required       pam_unix.so
auth     required       pam_nologin.so
account  required       pam_unix.so
password required       pam_unix.so
session  required       pam_limits.so
session  required       pam_unix.so
session  required       pam_lastlog.so nowtmp
session  optional       pam_mail.so standard
    </pre></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="sag-pam_tally-author"></a>6.32.6. AUTHOR</h3></div></div></div><p>
        pam_tally was written by Tim Baverstock and Tomas Mraz.
      </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sag-pam_succeed_if.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="sag-module-reference.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sag-pam_tally2.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">6.31. pam_succeed_if - test account characteristics </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="Linux-PAM_SAG.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 6.33. pam_tally2 - login counter (tallying) module</td></tr></table></div></body></html>