Name¶
pam_mount.conf - Description of the pam_mount configuration file
Overview¶
The pam_mount configuration file defines soft defaults for commands pam_mount
will be executing, the messages it will show, and which volumes to mount on
login. Since pam_mount 0.18, the configuration file is written in XML so as to
simplify the pam_mount code base while giving formatting freedom to the
end-user. Special characters like
<,
> and
&
that are used by XML itself must be encoded as
<,
> and
&, respectively; additionally,
" must be encoded as
" within a "" area,
but these three/four symbols are unlikely to be seen often anyway.
Do not use comments inside elements taking verbatim text, like
<fusermount></fusermount> - this is not handled by the pam_mount
XML tree parser.
Volume definitions¶
Volumes are defined with the
<volume> element, which primarily
takes the parameters as attributes, such as
<volume user="joe" fstype="nfs" server="fsbox"
path="/home/%(USER)" mountpoint="/bigdisk/%(USER)" />
and define to mount what for whom and how. There are a lot of tunables, which
are described in this section.
Simple user control¶
The following attributes control whether the volume is going to get mounted once
the user logs in. By default, volumes apply to all users, and specifying
attributes limits it to the given conditions, i.e. they are logically ANDed.
There is a more powerful and verbose mechanism for specifying complex
conditions, described further below in the section "Extended user
control".
- user="username"
- Limit the volume to the specified user, identified by name
- uid="number" or
uid="number -number"
- Limit the volume to the specified user(s), identified by UID or UID
range.
- pgrp="groupname"
- Limit the volume to users which have the group identified by name as their
primary group.
- gid="number" or
gid="number -number"
- Limit the volume to users which have the group(s) given by GID or GID
range as a primary group.
- sgrp="groupname"
- Limit the volume to users which are a member of the group identified by
name (either as primary or secondary group).
Volume configuration¶
The following attributes select volume source, destination, options and so on.
- fstype="type"
- The filesystem type, which can be anything your kernel, userspace and
pam_mount understand. If the fstype specifies a pam_mount-special type,
pam_mount will handle it. Otherwise, the fstype is passed to
mount(8) which then in turn looks for a userspace helper
/sbin/mount. fstype and runs that if it exists, and in any other
case, mount(8) would call mount(2) to cause the kernel to
directly mount it. mount(8) knows of an auto fstype, which
might be helpful in some cases. Not specifying the fstype attribute
implies fstype="auto". Note that mounting with
auto may fail if the filesystem kernel module is not loaded yet,
since mount(8) will check /proc/partitions.
-
- The fstypes cifs, smbfs, ncpfs, fuse,
nfs and nfs are overridden by pam_mount and we run the
respective helper programs directly instead of invoking mount(8)
with the basic default set of arguments which are often insufficient for
networked filesystems. See this manpage's section "Examples"
below for more details.
- noroot="1"
- Call the mount program without root privileges. It defaults to yes for the
fuse fstype, because FUSE volumes must be mounted as the user that
logs in to get access to the files by default.
- server="name"
- Defines the server to which to connect in case of cifs,
smbfs and ncpfs and nfs fstypes. For all other fs
types, this attribute is ignored. You can also specify the server in the
path attribute instead, but need to adhere to the specific syntax
that is a particular fstype requires. (E.g. CIFS uses
"//server/path", whereas NFS uses "server:path",
etc.)
- path="path"
- This mandatory attribute specifies the location of the volume, relative to
the server (if specified).
- mountpoint="directory"
- This specifies the destination directory onto which the volume is mounted.
" ~" expands to the user's home directory as present in
the passwd database, according to sh semantics. " ~name"
is not supported. If this attribute is omitted, the location is
read from /etc/fstab, which also requires path to be a device or a
source directory of an fstab entry.
- options="..."
- Specifies the mount options. If omitted and /etc/fstab is used (see
mountpoint), the options will also be sources from fstab.
- ssh="0" or ssh="1"
- The ssh option enables an input hack wrapper (zerossh, see
pmt-fd0ssh(1)) for this volume to hand the password to ssh over an
ssh-specific mechanism. Enable this option for any mount involving the SSH
binary, e.g. ccgfs or sshfs. Do not enable it for anything else or
the login will most likely hang.
- cipher="cipher"
- Cryptsetup cipher name for the volume. To be used with the crypt
fstype.
- fskeycipher="ciphertype"
- OpenSSL cipher name for the fskey. Use with the crypt fstype
(dm-crypt and LUKS). The special cipher keyword " none"
may be used to directly pass the file's contents to cryptsetup without
decryption by OpenSSL.
- fskeyhash="hash"
- OpenSSL hash name for the fskey.
- fskeypath="path"
- Path to the filesystem key.
Variables¶
Within attributes and commands (see later section), specific placeholders or
variables, identified by
%(name) may be used. These are
substituted at command invocation time.
- %(USER)
- Expands to the username of the user logging in.
- %(DOMAIN_NAME), %(DOMAIN_USER)
- Winbind has special UNIX usernames in the form of "
domain\ username", and %(DOMAIN_NAME) and
%(DOMAIN_USER) provide the split parts of it. This is useful when a
sharename on an MSAD server is the same as the username, e.g. <volume
fstype="cifs" server="fsbox"
path="%(DOMAIN_USER)" />.
- %(USERUID), %(USERGID)
- The numeric UID and GID of the primary group of the user logging in. This
is obtained via getpw*(), not getuid(). It is useful in conjunction with
the uid= or gid= mount options, e.g. <volume
options="uid=%(USERUID)" />. Note that you do not need
to specify uid=%(USERUID) for smbfs or cifs mounts because this is already
done automatically by pam_mount.
- %(GROUP)
- The name of the group for %(USERGID).
All other variables you might find in the source code are internal to pam_mount,
and are likely not to be expanded when you would expect it.
pam_mount parameters¶
Besides volumes, there are other elements allowed in pam_mount.conf.xml that
control pam_mount's own behavior.
General tunables¶
- <debug enable="1" />
- Enables verbose output during login to stderr and syslog. Some programs do
not cope with output sent on stderr, see doc/bugs.txt for a list. 0
disables debugging, 1 enables pam_mount tracing, and 2
additionally enables tracing in mount.crypt. The default is 0. As
the config file is parsed linearly, the <debug> directive takes
effect once it is seen - it it thus advised to put it near the start of
the file, before any <volume> definitions.
- <logout wait="microseconds"
hup="yes/no" term="yes/no"
kill=" yes/no" />
- Programs exist that do not terminate when the session is closed. (This
applies to the "final" close, i.e. when the last user session
ends.) Examples are processes still running in the background; or a broken
X session manager that did not clean up its children, or other X programs
that did not react to the X server termination notification. pam_mount can
be configured to kill these processes and optionally wait before sending
signals.
- <luserconf name=".pam_mount.conf.xml"
/>
- Individual users may define additional volumes in a file by the specified
name relative to their home directory. The presence of
<luserconf> in the master config file enables this feature.
If turned on, users may mount and unmount any volumes they specify and
that they have ownership of (in case of local mounts). The mount process
is executed as superuser. This may have security implications, so
this feature is disabled by default. Luserconfigs are parsed after any
volumes from the global configuration file have been mounted, so that
first mounting home directories with a global config and then mounting
further volumes from luserconfigs is possible.
- <mntoptions allow="options,..."
/>
- The <mntoptions> elements determine which options may be specified
in <volumes> in per-user configuration files (see
<luserconf>). It does not apply to the master file. Specifying
<mntoptions> is forbidden and ignored in per-user configs. The
default allowed list consists of " nosuid,nodev", and
this default is cleared when the first allow="..." attribute is
seen by the config parser. All further allow="..." are additive,
though.
- <mntoptions deny="options,..."
/>
- Any options listed in deny may not appear in the option list of per-user
mounts. The default deny list is empty.
- <mntoptions require="options,..."
/>
- All options listed in require must appear in the option list of per-user
mounts. The default require list consists of "
nosuid,nodev", and like allow="", is cleared when
first encountered by the parser, and is otherwise additive.
- <path>directories...</path>
- The default for the PATH environmental variable is not consistent across
distributions, and so, pam_mount provides its own set of sane defaults
which you may change at will.
- <mkmountpoint enable="1" remove="true"
/>
- Controls automatic creation and removal of mountpoints. If a mountpoint
does not exist when the volume is about to be mounted, pam_mount can be
instructed to create one using the enable attribute. Normally,
directories created this way are retained after logout, but remove
may be set to true to remove the mountpoint again, but only
if it was automatically created by pam_mount in the same session
before.
Auxiliary programs¶
Some mount programs need special default parameters to properly function. It is
good practice to specify uid= for CIFS for example, because it is mounted as
root and would otherwise show files belonging to root instead of the user
logging in.
- <fd0ssh>program...</fd0ssh>
- fd0ssh is a hack around OpenSSH that essentially makes it read passwords
from stdin even though OpenSSH normally does not do that.
- <fsck>fsck -p %(FSCKTARGET)</fsck>
- Local volumes will be checked before mounting if this program is set.
- <ofl>ofl -k%(SIGNAL) %(MNTPT)</ofl>
- The Open File Lister is used to identify processes using files within the
given subdirectory, and optionally send a signal to those processes.
- <pmvarrun>pmvarrun ...</pmvarrun>
- pmvarrun(8) is a separate program to manage the reference count
tracking user sessions.
Mount programs¶
Commands to mount/unmount volumes. They can take parameters, as shown. You can
specify either absolute paths, or relative ones, in which case $PATH will be
searched. Since login programs have differing default PATHs, pam_mount has its
own path definition (see above).
- <lclmount>mount -t %(FSTYPE)
...</lclmount>
- The regular mount program.
- <umount>umount %(MNTPT)</umount>
- Unless there is a dedicated umount program for a given filesystem type,
the regular umount program will be used.
-
- Linux supports lazy unmounting using `/sbin/umount -l`. This may be
dangerous for encrypted volumes because the underlying device is not
unmapped. Loopback devices are also affected by this (not being unmapped
when files are still open). Also, unmount on SMB volumes needs to be
called on %(MNTPT) and not %(VOLUME).
Commands for various mount programs. Not all have a dedicated umount helper
because some do not need one.
- <cifsmount>mount.cifs
...</cifsmount>
- <cryptmount>mount.crypt
...</cryptmount>
- <cryptumount>umount.crypt
%(MNTPT)</cryptumount>
- Mount helpers for dm-crypt and LUKS volumes.
- <fusemount>mount.fuse
...</fusemount>
- <fuseumount>fuserumount
...</fuseumount>
- <ncpmount>ncpmount ...</ncpmount>
- <ncpumount>ncpumount ...</ncpumount>
- <nfsmount>mount %(SERVER):%(VOLUME)
...</nfsmount>
- <smbmount>smbmount ...</smbmount>
- <smbumount>smbumount ...</smbumount>
Messages¶
- <msg-authpw>pam_mount
password:</msg-authpw>
- When pam_mount cannot obtain a password through PAM, or is configured to
not do so in the first place, and is configured to ask for a password
interactively as a replacement, this prompt will be shown.
- <msg-sessionpw>reenter...:</msg-sessionpw>
- In case the 'session' PAM block does not have the password (e.g. on su
from root to user), it will ask again. This prompt can also be
customized.
Extended user control¶
Sometimes, the simple user control attributes for the <volume> element are
not sufficient where one may want to build more complex expressions as to whom
a volume applies. Instead of attributes, extended user control is set up using
additional elements within <volume>, for example
<volume path="/dev/shm" mountpoint="~"> <and>
<sgrp>students</sgrp> <not> <sgrp>profs</sgrp>
</not> </and> </volume>
Which translates to (students && !profs).
Logical operators¶
- <and><elements>*</and>
- All elements within this one are logically ANDed. Any number of elements
may appear.
- <or><elements>*</or>
- All elements within this one are logically ORed. Any number of elements
may appear.
- <xor><elements>{2}</xor>
- The two elements within the <xor> are logically XORed.
- <not><element></not>
- The single element within the <not> is logically negated.
User selection¶
- <user>username</user>
- Match against the given username.
- <uid>number</uid> or
<uid>number-number</uid>
- Match the UID of the user logging in against a UID or UID range.
- <gid>number</gid> or
<gid>number-number</gid>
- Match the primary group of the user logging in against a GID or GID
range.
- <pgrp>groupname</pgrp>
- Check if the user logging in has groupname as the primary
group.
- <sgrp>groupname</sgrp>
- Check if the user logging in is a member of the group given by name
(i.e. it is either a primary or secondary group).
Attributes¶
- icase="yes" or icase="no"
- The icase attribute may be used on <user>,
<pgrp> and <sgrp> to enable case-insensitive
matching (or not). It defaults to "no".
- regex="yes" (or no)
- The regex attribute may be used on <user>,
<pgrp> and <sgrp> to enable interpreting the
text content of the tag as a Perl-compatible regular expression pattern.
This attribute may be combined with "icase" (see above).
Example: <user regex="yes">joe</user> matches any
user who has the letter sequence "joe" anywhere in their
username. Therefor, use the regex feature cautiously and consider adding ^
and $ anchors to limit security surprises. Example: <user
regex="yes">^.*joe.*$</user> if you really wanted to
match the sequence at any position.
Examples¶
Remember that
~ can be used in the mountpoint attribute to denote the
home directory as retrievable through
getpwent(3).
sshfs and ccgfs¶
Not specifying any path after the colon (:) uses the path whereever ssh will put
you in, usually the home directory.
<volume fstype="fuse" path="sshfs#%(USER)@fileserver:"
mountpoint="~" />
<volume fstype="fuse"
path="ccgfs-ssh-pull#%(USER)@host:directory"
mountpoint="~" />
encfs 1.4.x and up¶
<volume fstype="fuse" path="encfs#/crypto/%(USER)"
mountpoint="~" options="nonempty" />
(encfs 1.3 is no longer supported.)
NFS mounts¶
<volume fstype="nfs" server="fileserver"
path="/home/%(USER)" mountpoint="~" />
CIFS/SMB mounts¶
<volume user="user" fstype="smbfs"
server="krueger" path="public"
mountpoint="/home/user/krueger" />
NCP mounts¶
<volume user="user" fstype="ncpfs"
server="krueger" path="public"
mountpoint="/home/user/krueger"
options="username=user.context" />
Bind mounts¶
This may come useful in conjunction with pam_chroot:
<volume path="/bin" mountpoint="~/bin"
options="bind" />
tmpfs mounts¶
Volatile tmpfs mount with restricted size (thanks to Mike Hommey for this
example):
<volume user="test" fstype="tmpfs"
mountpoint="/home/test"
options="size=10M,uid=%(USER),mode=0700" />
dm-crypt volumes¶
Crypt mounts require a kernel with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DM and CONFIG_DM_CRYPT
enabled, as well as all the ciphers that are going to be used, e.g.
CONFIG_CRYPTO_AES, CONFIG_CRYPTO_BLOWFISH, CONFIG_CRYPTO_TWOFISH.
<volume path="/home/%(USER).img" mountpoint="~"
cipher="aes-cbc-essiv:sha256" fskeycipher="aes-256-cbc"
fskeyhash="sha1" fskeypath="/home/%(USER).key" />
LUKS volumes¶
<volume path="/home/%(USER).img" mountpoint="~"
cipher="aes-cbc-essiv:sha256" />
cryptoloop volumes¶
cryptoloop is not explicitly supported by pam_mount. Citing the Linux kernel
config help text: "WARNING: This device [cryptoloop] is not safe for
journal[l]ed filesystems[...]. Please use the Device Mapper [dm-crypt] module
instead."
OpenBSD encrypted home¶
OpenBSD encrypted home directory example:
<volume path="/home/user.img" mountpoint="/home/user"
options="svnd0" />