RE: [TCLUG:20824] passwd security configuration

[Ben Luey <lueyb@gridley.ACNS.Carleton.edu>]

> http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/

Thanks -- that was  a great help. Now I learned that the pam_cracklib.so
controls the password security checking features. The docs give this as an
example.

passwd  password required       pam_cracklib.so retry=3
passwd  password required       pam_pwdb.so use_authtok

(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/Linux-PAM-html/pam-6.html#ss6.3
explains it well)

But looking at my system I see cracklib being called by pam not just for
passwd when changing the password, but also in chfn, chsh, gdm, login and
su -- basically any program that does authorization. What is teh
pam_cracklib doing for authorization? Does does anything but passwd
need/want it?

Thanks


Ben