Bug 742402 - missing pam module documentation
Summary: missing pam module documentation
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: fprintd
Version: 17
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Bastien Nocera
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-09-30 01:28 UTC by JW
Modified: 2013-02-19 11:07 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-02-19 11:07:48 UTC
Type: ---


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description JW 2011-09-30 01:28:38 UTC
Description of problem:
Unlike all other pam modules, fprintd inserts a pam module without corresponding documentation.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
fprintd-0.2.0-3

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. man pam_fprintd
2. man -k pam_

  
Actual results:
1. <empty>
2. lots of output, except no pam_fprintd(8)

Expected results:
1. pam_fprintd           (8)  - something about fingerprints

Additional info:
System admin finds strange module in /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac and wastes an hour trying to figure out what pam_fprintd.so is and where it came from.  

Firstly, the name of the module is ridiculous (fprintf, printf, normally means something quite different) ... how about something more sensible like fingerprintd?  Why abbreviate the most significant part of the name (finger) and truncate the less significant part of the name (print)? Why abbreviate it at all?

Secondly, why not just clone a manual page like pam_rootok(8) and create pam_fingerprintd(8) (or pam_fprintd(8)).

Thirdly, security provided via pam becomes a joke when a module is installed without any documentation.  This softens admins up to accept the existence of undocumented modules referenced by /etc/pam.d configs as something normal. Bad idea!

Comment 1 Fedora End Of Life 2012-08-07 15:27:51 UTC
This message is a notice that Fedora 15 is now at end of life. Fedora
has stopped maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 15. It is
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of '15' have been closed as WONTFIX.

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Comment 2 JW 2012-08-08 00:03:02 UTC
still a problem

Comment 3 Bastien Nocera 2013-02-19 11:07:48 UTC
File feature requests upstream please:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=libfprint


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