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Linux PAM Administration

person icon Imran Afzal

4.6

Linux PAM Administration

In this free online course, study Linux pluggable authentication modules, or PAM, and its importance in a Linux system.

updated on icon Updated on Jun, 2025

language icon Language - English

person icon Imran Afzal

English [CC]

category icon IT and Software ,Operating Systems and Servers,Linux

Lectures -16

Resources -2

Duration -1.5 hours

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4.6

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Course Description

The use of computers has made our lives easier and, in some ways, more complicated. For example, if you own a PC, you likely have created a username and password to access your computer, your files and several online accounts. Most of us have several accounts and thus have several different user names and passwords that we need to memorize. However, you are here because you are not like most people. You are one of the few who use a Linux operating system and are intrigued to know how Linux PAM works. As you are well aware, usernames and passwords, finger scans, security questions, and the like, are used to authenticate users to applications, services and servers. Applications need to communicate with services or servers to authenticate their users, and the authentication process can be complicated.

For security reasons, system administrators often change the way their servers authenticate users. When the authentication scheme changes, an application’s code needs to be recompiled to meet the new criteria. This need is where Linux PAM - or pluggable authentication modules - comes in. It’s the middleman between apps used by Linux and the server’s new authentication scheme. It allows the app to continue authenticating its users without having its code changed every time the authentication scheme is updated. This course is designed to help you understand how Linux PAM works. You will start by learning how to download and install Linux on your computer using Oracle VirtualBox as your virtual machine. Even if you already know how to do that yourself, you will likely learn something new from the instruction videos. Next, you will learn what PAM is, how it communicates with a server, and why it is a dominant and powerful tool for Linux users.

You will study how to determine whether or not an app is PAM-aware; that is if an application uses PAM to authenticate its users. Study how the PAM file configuration format is designed. When you open any service file, you will see that the file is divided into three columns. The first column is the module interface (management or group type), the second column is for control flags, and the third column is the modules (SO file). Explore the function of these three columns in authenticating users. Become familiar with the authentication tasks that the four independent management groups in the first column perform. Understand the instructions given by the four flags in the control flags column, and comprehend how PAM can take an argument and pass it through a module in the third column. If you are a Linux user, or you have been given the task of administrating PAM for your organization, this is the course for you.

Goals

  • Define Linux PAM
  • State the function of Oracle VirtualBox
  • Recall how to install Linux CentOS on your computer
  • Explain why Linux PAM is important
  • Describe the role of each column in the PAM file configuration format
  • Discuss how PAM communicates with a server to authenticate users

Prerequisites

  • No Prerequisite
Linux PAM Administration

Curriculum

Check out the detailed breakdown of what’s inside the course

Introduction

3 Lectures
  • play icon 1-linux-pam-administration-intro 01:35 01:35
  • play icon 2-linux-pam-administration-course-overview 02:29 02:29
  • play icon Syllabus

Lab-Setup

4 Lectures
Tutorialspoint

Working with Linux PAM Security

9 Lectures
Tutorialspoint

Instructor Details

Imran Afzal

Imran Afzal

Imran Afzal, CEO of UTCLI Solutions and best-selling instructor is renowned for his expertise in IT and education. With a global reach, he has successfully instructed over a million students and excels as an educational content creator, mentor, and entrepreneur, holding an MBA degree.

Boasting over two decades of experience in systems administration, engineering, leadership, entrepreneurship, training, and public speaking, Imran's career began at Time Warner in New York City in 2001 as a systems administrator, marking the start of his journey in IT.

He has applied his IT acumen across various Fortune 500 companies in sectors such as finance, fashion, and tech media. Notable projects led by Imran include data center migrations, VMWare deployment, monitoring tools implementation, and Amazon cloud migration.

Imran is an alumnus of Baruch College, City University of New York, where he graduated with honors in Computer Information Systems. He furthered his education by obtaining a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT).

His professional qualifications encompass certifications in Linux Systems Management, UNIX Operating Systems, Linux System Administration, System Internals, VMWare Certified Professional, RHCSA, and Windows Server Certification.

Since 2010, Imran has dedicated himself to training, offering both onsite and online courses. His online courses are among the best-selling and highest-rated, with a student base exceeding one million worldwide. He has been instrumental in aiding over a thousand students in securing their dream IT jobs.

Committed to the cause of education and community service, Imran has also founded a non-profit school catering to children from pre-K to 10th grade

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