pam_fail_delay specifies the minimum delay for the PAM library to use when an authentication error occurs. The actual delay will vary by as much at 25%. If this function is called multiple times, the longest time specified by any of the call will be used.
The delay is invoked if an authentication error occurs during the pam_authenticate or pam_chauthtok function calls.
Independent of the success of pam_authenticate or pam_chauthtok, the delay time is reset to its default value of 0 when the PAM library returns control to the application from these two functions.