Within /etc/pam.d there are multiple files for each system component: authorization authorization_la chkpasswd login.term s

Within /etc/pam.d there are multiple files for each system component: authorization authorization_la chkpasswd login.term screensaver screensaver_la su authorization_aks authorization_lacont cups other screensaver_aks smbd sudo authorization_ctk checkpw login passwd screensaver_ctk sshd So if you edit the sudo file it will only affect sudo. Likewise sshd will only affect sshd. Unless of course it contains an entry that includes another file which is common for Linux. Now even if it causes problem for say sudo over ssh that page recommends that you add a "sufficient" entry. That means that method will be tried and if fails or its unavailable the next one will be tried.