Pluggable Authentication Module
Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) is a library for Linux which allow different session managers to authenticate users easily.
PAM provides an alternative to calling files like /etc/passwd
by giving a high-level API that takes care of all the common functions required for a desktop.
It also takes care of managing keyrings or wallets.
The pam_unix
module handles areas such as referring to /etc/passwd
and /etc/shadow
to verify credentials.