2. EL 9
  3. pam_ssh_agent_auth
  4. pam_ssh_agent_auth(8)

Scroll to navigation

pam_ssh_agent_auth(8) PAM pam_ssh_agent_auth(8)

NAME

pam_ssh_agent_auth - PAM module for granting permissions based on SSH agent requests

DESCRIPTION

This module provides authentication via ssh keys. If an ssh-agent listening at SSH_AUTH_SOCK can successfully authenticate that it has the secret key for a public key in the specified file, authentication is granted. If the public key originally used to authenticate at sshd matches an authorized key, authentication succeeds. Otherwise authentication fails.

CONFIGURATION

SUDO

/etc/pam.d/sudo:
 auth   sufficient      pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=/etc/security/authorized_keys
/etc/sudoers:
In older versions of sudo (< 1.8.5) it was necessary to set:
Defaults env_keep += "SSH_AUTH_SOCK"

This configuration would permit anyone who has an SSH_AUTH_SOCK that manages the private key matching a public key in /etc/security/authorized_keys to execute sudo without having to enter a password. Note that the ssh-agent listening to SSH_AUTH_SOCK can either be local, or forwarded.

Unlike NOPASSWD, this still requires an authentication, it's just that the authentication is provided by ssh-agent, and not password entry.

SSHD

/etc/ssh/sshd_config:
 PubkeyAuthentication yes
 AuthenticationMethods publickey,keyboard-interactive:pam
 PasswordAuthentication no
 UsePAM yes
/etc/pam.d/sshd:
 auth required    pam_permit.so
 auth   sufficient      pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=/etc/security/super_authorized_keys
 auth sufficient  pam_secondary_auth_method.so
 ...
 auth requisite   pam_deny.so

This configuration would permit anyone who originally authenticated to sshd with a public key also found in /etc/security/super_authorized_keys to log in without having to complete other PAM auth methods. Anyone whose ssh key was accepted initially by sshd but whose key is not in the allowlist must complete another secondary PAM module such as OTP or else be denied.

ARGUMENTS

Specify the path to the authorized_keys file(s) you would like to use for authentication. Subject to tilde and % EXPANSIONS (below)
A flag which enables authorized_keys files to be owned by the invoking user, instead of root. This flag is enabled automatically whenever the expansions %h or ~ are used.
Specify an external command to run, which should take a single argument, the username of the person being authenticated, and emit to its stdout a file in authorized_keys format. This is ideally suited for use with sssd's sss_ssh_authorizedkeys, for authenticating users via authorized_keys stored in ldap or other sssd supported security service.
Specify a user to run the authorized_keys_command as. If this option is not specified, the authorized_keys_command will be run as the user being authenticated.
A flag which enables verbose logging
(when compiled with --enable-sudo-hack)

Specify the service name to use to identify the service "sudo". When the PAM_SERVICE identifier matches this string, and if PAM_RUSER is not set, pam_ssh_agent_auth will attempt to identify the calling user from the environment variable SUDO_USER.

This defaults to "sudo".

EXPANSIONS

~ -- same as in shells, a user's Home directory
Automatically enables allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file if used in the context of ~/. If used as ~user/, it would expect the file to be owned by 'user', unless you explicitly set allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file
%h -- User's Home directory
Automatically enables allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file
%H -- The short-hostname
%u -- Username
%f -- FQDN

EXAMPLES

in /etc/pam.d/sudo

"auth sufficient pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
The default .ssh/authorized_keys file in a user's home-directory
"auth sufficient pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=%h/.ssh/authorized_keys"
Same as above.
"auth sufficient pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=~fred/.ssh/authorized_keys"
If the home-directory of user 'fred' was /home/fred, this would expand to /home/fred/.ssh/authorized_keys. In this case, we have not specified allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file, so this file must be owned by 'fred'.
"auth sufficient pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=/secure/%H/%u/authorized_keys allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file"
On a host named foobar.baz.com, and a user named fred, would expand to /secure/foobar/fred/authorized_keys. In this case, we specified allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file, so fred would be able to manage that authorized_keys file himself.
"auth sufficient pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=/secure/%f/%u/authorized_keys"
On a host named foobar.baz.com, and a user named fred, would expand to /secure/foobar.baz.com/fred/authorized_keys. In this case, we have not specified allow_user_owned_authorized_keys_file, so this file must be owned by root.
"auth [success=3 default=ignore] pam_ssh_agent_auth.so file=~/.ssh/authorized_keys debug"
This pam.d config format allows for more control over how pam handles success and failure. In this example, we use success=3, which specifies that when this module succeeds, pam should jump over the next 3 auth modules and continue from there. This is useful, for instance, if /etc/pam.d/common-auth is included, and contains 3 "auth required" or similar module rules that we wish to skip, but we wish not to skip other auth rules.

For more information, please see http://linux.die.net/man/5/pam.d

COPYRIGHT

 Copyright (c) 2008-2014, Jamie Beverly.
 And is based on openssh, and the included works by Markus Friedl, Darren Tucker,
 Todd C. Miller, Ben Lindstrom, Tim Rice, Damien Miller, Liz Fong-Jones, and many others.
 All rights reserved.
 See sources for complete attributions.
 
 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are
 permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
    conditions and the following disclaimer.
 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list
    of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
    provided with the distribution.
 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY Jamie Beverly ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL Jamie Beverly OR
 CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
 CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
 SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
 ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
 NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
 ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
2024-01-05 v0.10.3