Description

When utilizing the pam_python3.so wrapper on modern rolling-release distributions (e.g., Arch/EndeavourOS with Python 3.12+), Howdy 2.6.1 fails to execute the PAM hook due to a Python 2 syntax artifact. Furthermore, a deprecation warning in the comparison logic leaks into stderr during successful authentication.

Environment

• OS: Arch Linux / EndeavourOS
• Kernel: 7.0.2-cachyos
• Python: 3.14
• Howdy Version: 2.6.1

Errors

1. PAM Wrapper Crash (/lib/security/howdy/pam.py)
Because Python 3 renamed the module to lowercase, instantiating configparser.configparser() throws:
AttributeError: module 'configparser' has no attribute 'configparser'. Did you mean: 'ConfigParser'?
This causes the module to return PAM_IGNORE, breaking the biometric auth chain.

2. Deprecation Warning (/lib/security/howdy/compare.py)
DeprecationWarning: datetime.datetime.utcnow() is deprecated and scheduled for removal in a future version. Use timezone-aware objects to represent datetimes in UTC: datetime.datetime.now(datetime.UTC).

Proposed Fix

In howdy/src/pam.py (Line 13):
Change the class instantiation to maintain standard Python 3 capitalization:

# Old
config = configparser.configparser()
# New
config = configparser.ConfigParser()

In howdy/src/compare.py (Line 57):
Update the datetime call to the modern, timezone-aware standard:

# Old
"Date: " + datetime.datetime.utcnow().strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S UTC"),
# New
"Date: " + datetime.datetime.now(datetime.UTC).strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S UTC"),