Profile Applicability:
 • Level 1

Description:
 Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) provide a flexible authentication framework for Linux systems. Installing the latest PAM version ensures all security patches, features, and bug fixes are applied, enhancing system authentication security.

Rationale:
 Keeping PAM up to date reduces vulnerabilities and ensures compatibility with modern authentication mechanisms and security standards.

Impact:
 Pros:

  • Improves authentication security and stability.

  • Provides access to new features and security enhancements.

Cons:

  • Upgrading PAM may require system restarts or service reloads.

  • In rare cases, new versions may introduce compatibility issues.

Default Value:
 PAM is usually installed by default, but the version may not be the latest without updates.

Pre-requisites:

  • Root or sudo privileges to update system packages.

  • Network access to package repositories.

Remediation:

Test Plan:

Using Linux command line:

  1. Check the current installed version of PAM:

On RPM-based systems:

rpm -q pam

  1. Compare with the latest available version from official repositories or vendor advisories.

Implementation Plan:

Using Linux command line:

  1. Update PAM packages to the latest version:

On RPM-based systems:

yum update pam -y


  1. Verify the update:
  2. rpm -q pam  # or dpkg -l | grep libpam


Backout Plan:

Using Linux command line:

  1. Roll back to previous PAM versions if necessary using package management tools.

  2. Test authentication functionality after rollback.

References: