pam_mount module 0.19

pam_mount is a Pluggable Authentication Module that can mount volumes for a user session.
This module is aimed at environments with SMB (Samba or Windows NT) or NCP (Netware or Mars-NWE) servers that Unix users wish to access transparently. It facilitates access to private volumes of these types well.
The module also supports mounting home directories using loopback encrypted filesystems. The module was originally written for use on the GNU/Linux operating system but has since been modified to work on several flavors of BSD.
- Every user can access his own volumes
- The user needs to type the password just once (at login)
- The mounting process is transparent to the users
- There is no need to keep the login passwords in any additional file
- The volumes are unmounted upon logout, so it saves system resources, avoiding the need of listing every every possibly useful remote volume in /etc/fstab or in an automount/supermount config file. This is also necessary for securing encrypted filesystems.
pam_mount "understands" SMB, NCP, and any type of filesystem that can be mounted using the standard mount command. If someone has a particular need for a different filesystem, feel free to ask me to include it and send me patches.
If you intend to use pam_mount to protect volumes on your computer using an encrypted filesystem system, please know that there are many other issues you need to consider in order to protect your data.
For example, you probably want to disable or encrypt your swap partition (the cryptoswap can help you do this). Dont assume a system is secure without carefully considering potential threats.
Enhancements:
- pam_mount now uses an XML config file, which also has a few new variables and options.
- Support for truecrypt was added.