[nicce]

It is still quite confusing.

> built as a static binary without any dependencies

Static binaries are explicitly used for removing the need for specific dynamic runtime dependencies. It does not refer to build dependencies, which are not interesting here.

Based on the terms, I would except that libpam is included for the final binary.

[freedomben]

If libpam was compiled in, then this tool would do nothing. libpam is not a library for this tool, it's a target, like an input file. libpam is a library for the kernel of the target system. this tool hooks into it to do its work.

[nicce]

Exactly, it is the target. The later phrase pointed out in the original comment it to be some sort of dependency for runtime use, making the confusion. While it is not related to runtime code functionality at all.

[stevenhuang]

The entire point of this program is that it hooks the func inside the libpam.so actively being used by the system for auth...