FAILLOCK.CONF(5) Linux-PAM Manual FAILLOCK.CONF(5)
NAME
faillock.conf - pam_faillock configuration file
DESCRIPTION
faillock.conf provides a way to configure the default settings for
locking the user after multiple failed authentication attempts. This
file is read by the pam_faillock module and is the preferred method
over configuring pam_faillock directly.
The file has a very simple name = value format with possible comments
starting with # character. The whitespace at the beginning of line, end
of line, and around the = sign is ignored.
OPTIONS
dir=/path/to/tally-directory
The directory where the user files with the failure records are
kept. The default is /var/run/faillock.
Note: These files will disappear after reboot on systems configured
with directory /var/run/faillock mounted on virtual memory.
audit
Will log the user name into the system log if the user is not
found.
silent
Don't print informative messages to the user. Please note that when
this option is not used there will be difference in the
authentication behavior for users which exist on the system and
non-existing users.
no_log_info
Don't log informative messages via syslog(3).
local_users_only
Only track failed user authentications attempts for local users in
/etc/passwd and ignore centralized (AD, IdM, LDAP, etc.) users. The
faillock(8) command will also no longer track user failed
authentication attempts. Enabling this option will prevent a
double-lockout scenario where a user is locked out locally and in
the centralized mechanism.
deny=n
Deny access if the number of consecutive authentication failures
for this user during the recent interval exceeds n. The default is
3.
fail_interval=n
The length of the interval during which the consecutive
authentication failures must happen for the user account lock out
is n seconds. The default is 900 (15 minutes).
unlock_time=n
The access will be reenabled after n seconds after the lock out.
The value 0 has the same meaning as value never - the access will
not be reenabled without resetting the faillock entries by the
faillock(8) command. The default is 600 (10 minutes).
Note that the default directory that pam_faillock uses is usually
cleared on system boot so the access will be also reenabled after
system reboot. If that is undesirable a different tally directory
must be set with the dir option.
Also note that it is usually undesirable to permanently lock out
the users as they can become easily a target of denial of service
attack unless the usernames are random and kept secret to potential
attackers.
even_deny_root
Root account can become locked as well as regular accounts.
root_unlock_time=n
This option implies even_deny_root option. Allow access after n
seconds to root account after the account is locked. In case the
option is not specified the value is the same as of the unlock_time
option.
admin_group=name
If a group name is specified with this option, members of the group
will be handled by this module the same as the root account (the
options even_deny_root and root_unlock_time will apply to them. By
default the option is not set.
EXAMPLES
/etc/security/faillock.conf file example:
deny=4
unlock_time=1200
silent
FILES
/etc/security/faillock.conf
the config file for custom options
SEE ALSO
faillock(8), pam_faillock(8), pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)
AUTHOR
pam_faillock was written by Tomas Mraz. The support for faillock.conf
was written by Brian Ward.
Linux-PAM Manual 11/26/2024 FAILLOCK.CONF(5)