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Add support for running services inside a PAM session by troglobit · Pull Request #500 · finit-project/finit · GitHub

Add support for running services inside a PAM session - #500

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troglobit merged 1 commit into
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Sep 23, 2026
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Apply a PAM session to run/task/sysv/services Finit starts, pam_limits above all, so a service running as a given user picks up that user's limits the way a login does.

Add a new pam setting for the new block format (only), like the per-service directories, naming a file in /etc/pam.d:

service weston {
    user    = "weston"
    pam     = "weston-autologin"
    command = "/usr/bin/weston --continue-without-input"
}

pam_close_session() has to be called by a process still holding the handle, and the handle does not survive exec(). Hence the keeper: it holds the handle, drops to the service's credentials, and waits for a parent-death signal before closing the session. Same shape as systemd's (sd-pam), for the same reason, and one per fork, so the script hooks open and close their own.

The keeper closes the descriptors it inherited from Finit and only those. Closing everything would also take out what pam_open_session() opened for itself, a keyring fd or a lock file, and leave the modules to close a session with those pulled out from under them. Closing nothing, as (sd-pam) does, would leave it holding the write end of the notify pipe for the service's whole lifetime and starve notify = "s6" services of their ready signal. So the fds open before pam_start() are snapshotted and exactly those are closed, while the ones PAM opens after are marked close-on-exec so the daemon does not inherit them either.

A refused value, a denied account stack, an uninstalled pam.d/ file, and a build without PAM support all keep the service from starting rather than running it with the stacks skipped: one that quietly loses pam_limits and its private /tmp, with nothing said. Capabilities a module like pam_cap.so granted are merged into the IAB Finit applies instead of being replaced by it, which only helps a service that also sets capabilities, the other arm being a plain setuid() with nothing left to restore once permitted is empty.

The test sysroot gains pam_permit.so, pam_deny.so and pam_limits.so, which ldd cannot see, libpam dlopen()s them, and the test skips when the host has none to stage. The negative cases pin the exit status rather than only asserting crashed, which serv reports for any early exit, so a bad command or an unwritable pidfile cannot pass for a rejected session.

troglobit requested a review from liuming50 August 20, 2026 16:07

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@liuming50 here's a proposal for your feature request #420 slated for v5.0. I hope it meets your expectations, and I'd be very grateful if you could have a look and let me know what you (all) think about the shape and implementation.

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Ping @liuming50 ... hope you see this. We're adding support for user sessions/services #301, and this is one critical piece of the puzzle, so I'd really appreciate your feedback before I merge this! Thank you in advance 🙏

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@troglobit thanks for the great work! I would review it and have a try as well. Will get back to you soon.

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@troglobit thanks for the great work! I would review it and have a try as well. Will get back to you soon.

Awesome, looking forward to your feedback! 😃

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Hi, @troglobit

Sorry for the delay, I was busy on some other things, I have finally done some tests as below:

Check if login user running in PAM:

$ grep -i pam /var/log/auth.log
2026-09-21T08:43:29.646590+00:00 (none) login[1159]: pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user tester(uid=1000) by LOGIN(uid=0)

Check if services (started by finit) are running with libpam:

$ pidof crond
707
$ sudo grep -i pam /proc/707/maps
754e6000-754ef000 r-xp 00000000 fe:00 5457       /lib/libpam.so.0.85.1
754ef000-754f0000 r--p 00008000 fe:00 5457       /lib/libpam.so.0.85.1
754f0000-754f1000 rw-p 00009000 fe:00 5457       /lib/libpam.so.0.85.1

$ pidof sshd
425
$ grep -i pam /proc/425/maps
76ef1000-76efa000 r-xp 00000000 b3:02 1131 /lib/libpam.so.0.85.1
76efa000-76efb000 r--p 00008000 b3:02 1131 /lib/libpam.so.0.85.1
76efb000-76efc000 rw-p 00009000 b3:02 1131 /lib/libpam.so.0.85.1

Check if a service can run with a PAM config:

finit config:

service connmand {
    pam = "connmand"
    command = "/usr/sbin/connmand -n"
}

see logs like:

/var/log/auth.log:2026-09-22T10:52:34.711753+00:00 (none) finit[466]: pam_unix(connmand:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=0)

so seems is working fine?

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Hi, @troglobit

Hiya! 😃

Sorry for the delay, I was busy on some other things, I have finally done some tests as below:

No worries at all, been busy myself.

[snip]
so seems is working fine?

Very happy to hear this, thank you for taking the time to verify! 🙇‍♂️

Apply a PAM session to run/task/sysv/services Finit starts, pam_limits
above all, so a service running as a given user picks up that user's
limits the way a login does.

Add a new `pam` setting for the new block format (only), like the
per-service directories, naming a file in /etc/pam.d:

    service weston {
        user    = "weston"
        pam     = "weston-autologin"
        command = "/usr/bin/weston --continue-without-input"
    }

pam_close_session() has to be called by a process still holding the
handle, and the handle does not survive exec().  Hence the keeper: it
holds the handle, drops to the service's credentials, and waits for a
parent-death signal before closing the session.  Same shape as
systemd's (sd-pam), for the same reason, and one per fork, so the
script hooks open and close their own.

The keeper closes the descriptors it inherited from Finit and only
those.  Closing everything would also take out what pam_open_session()
opened for itself, a keyring fd or a lock file, and leave the modules
to close a session with those pulled out from under them.  Closing
nothing, as (sd-pam) does, would leave it holding the write end of the
notify pipe for the service's whole lifetime and starve notify = "s6"
services of their ready signal.  So the fds open before pam_start()
are snapshotted and exactly those are closed, while the ones PAM opens
after are marked close-on-exec so the daemon does not inherit them
either.

A refused value, a denied account stack, an uninstalled pam.d file,
and a build without PAM support all keep the service from starting
rather than running it with the stacks skipped: one that quietly loses
pam_limits and its private /tmp, with nothing said.  Capabilities a
module like pam_cap.so granted are merged into the IAB Finit applies
instead of being replaced by it, which only helps a service that also
sets capabilities, the other arm being a plain setuid() with nothing
left to restore once permitted is empty.

The test sysroot gains pam_permit.so, pam_deny.so and pam_limits.so,
which ldd cannot see, libpam dlopen()s them, and the test skips when
the host has none to stage.  The negative cases pin the exit status
rather than only asserting crashed, which serv reports for any early
exit, so a bad command or an unwritable pidfile cannot pass for a
rejected session.

Signed-off-by: Joachim Wiberg <troglobit@gmail.com>
troglobit merged commit 417abf9 into master Sep 23, 2026
9 checks passed
troglobit deleted the pam branch September 23, 2026 15:52
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