PAM_AUTOLOGIN(8)

NAME
pam_autologin - automatically login using a remembered password

DESCRIPTION

pam_autologin is a PAM module that automatically logs in using a saved username and password.

To enable this module, add it first on the auth list in the PAM configuration file. Create an empty /etc/security/autologin.conf file. pam_autologin will detect this file, and that it is empty, and will save the first non-root username and password in it. During the next login, the module will automatically authenticate using the saved credentials.

Only the first login on each tty is automated unless the "always" option is given to the module in PAM configuration. /var/log/wtmp is used to determine if the login is first. When the user logs out, it is likely with the intent to log in to a different account, so autologin should not occur.

To disable autologin, delete the /etc/security/autologin.conf file. It is prudent to overwrite the file with zeroes before deletion, by using the shred program from coreutils for example, to avoid leaking the password into the unused storage area, where it may or may not be accessible when reading the raw drive data. The contents of the file are obfuscated with a random key, but obviously can not be made unrecoverable since autologin must parse it without user assistance.

OPTIONS

Option "always" can be given to autologin every time, instead of only for the first login on the target tty.

EXAMPLES

auth required pam_autologin.so

SEE ALSO

pam.conf(5), pam(8)