# /etc/shadow

auth.shadow module implements authentication by reading /etc/shadow. Alternatively it can be
configured to use helper binary like auth.external does.

```
auth.shadow {
    debug no
    use_helper no
}
```

## Configuration directives

**Syntax**: debug _boolean_ <br>
**Default**: no

Enable verbose logging for all modules. You don't need that unless you are
reporting a bug.

**Syntax**: use\_helper _boolean_ <br>
**Default**: no

Use LibexecDirectory/maddy-shadow-helper instead of directly reading /etc/shadow.
You need to use that if maddy is running as an unprivileged user
privileges (e.g. when using system accounts).

You need to make maddy-shadow-helper binary setuid, see
cmd/maddy-shadow-helper/README.md in source tree for details.

TL;DR (assuming you have maddy group):
```
chown root:maddy /usr/lib/maddy/maddy-shadow-helper
chmod u+xs,g+x,o-x /usr/lib/maddy/maddy-shadow-helper
```