Pluggable Authentication Modules

Subtechnique · ATTACK:enterprise:T1556.003

Attributed source ↗ · Plaintext record · Complete record and assertions JSON

Inspect structured metadata and provenance

{
  "id": "ATTACK:enterprise:T1556.003",
  "title": "Pluggable Authentication Modules",
  "type": "Subtechnique",
  "source_url": "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1556/003",
  "snapshot": "enterprise-attack-20.0.json",
  "status": "active",
  "rights": "Source metadata only; source notices retained; no operational prose or payloads",
  "review_status": "machine-extracted; source-specific checks passed, editorial review pending",
  "stix_id": "attack-pattern--06c00069-771a-4d57-8ef5-d3718c1a8771",
  "external_id": "T1556.003",
  "domain": "enterprise",
  "created": "2020-06-26T04:01:09.648Z",
  "modified": "2026-05-12T15:12:00.620Z",
  "version": "3.0",
  "aliases": [

  ],
  "tactics": [
    "defense-impairment",
    "persistence",
    "credential-access"
  ],
  "source_references": [
    {
      "source_name": "Apple PAM",
      "url": "https://opensource.apple.com/source/dovecot/dovecot-239/dovecot/doc/wiki/PasswordDatabase.PAM.txt"
    },
    {
      "source_name": "Man Pam_Unix",
      "url": "https://linux.die.net/man/8/pam_unix"
    },
    {
      "source_name": "PAM Creds",
      "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20240303094335/https://x-c3ll.github.io/posts/PAM-backdoor-DNS/"
    },
    {
      "source_name": "Red Hat PAM",
      "url": "https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/managing_smart_cards/pluggable_authentication_modules"
    },
    {
      "source_name": "PAM Backdoor",
      "url": "https://github.com/zephrax/linux-pam-backdoor"
    }
  ]
}

Explicit source assertions (5)

First 80 shown here; the complete set is in this record’s JSON and plaintext. Each relationship retains its source and locator. No inferred relationships are added.