What are Pluggable Authentication Modules?

Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) are an enhancement to Unix authentication which enable a wide range of identity management databases to be utilized in addition to the standard /etc/passwd file.


Authentication Sources for PAM
Pluggable Authentication Modules have been created to allow authentication from sources such as Kerberos, RADIUS, S/key, DCE, Active Directory, and RSA SecureID.

Operating System Support for Pluggable Authentication Modules
The Pluggable Authentication Module architecture was designed by Sun Microsystems and incorporated in Solaris 2.6.

Since that time, PAM support has been added to FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Linux.