Bug 8083

Summary: pam_pwdb with nullok accepts any password for passwordless accounts
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Leos Bitto <bitto>
Component: pamAssignee: Cristian Gafton <gafton>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 6.1CC: creebain, djm
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
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Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2000-02-05 20:17:21 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Leos Bitto 1999-12-31 13:08:38 UTC 
When you use pam_pwdb with nullok (the default RH 6.1 setting), and the
account you are trying to log on has no password (passwd -d xyz => ^xyz::
in /etc/shadow), pam_pwdb will let you log in with any password, not only
with the empty one. I use pam-0.68-8 with shadow passwords and md5, which
is the default RH 6.1 setting. I think that this might turn into a security
problem in applications which blindly trust PAM. It already fools OpenSSH's
parameter "PermitEmptyPasswords no", for example. It doesn't allow you to
log in with empty password, but pam_pwdb offers you zillions of other
passwords...
Comment 1 Bill Nottingham 2000-02-05 20:17:59 UTC 
Fixed in the errata.