cannot ssh to a centOS 4.9 server

when i ssh to it from another linux server, it says "Access denied
"

try to stop the selinux and login

check any PAM related files are updated

can you paste the logs when you are trying to ssh from remove

try this on the vmware console
tail -f /var/log/messages

also check what port the SSH is running from?

Check the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config and check for Port.

As suggested by Shiju above also check the selinux.

Verify the port which is set on sshd_config is configured on Firewall as well.

Sudeep

Are you trying to log in as root or a user??

Check service is running:

service sshd status

Check iptables allows connections:

iptables -L -vn | grep "dpt:22"

Check if root is allowed to log in per config:

grep -i permitrootlogin /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Check if config allows password authentication:

grep PasswordAuthentication /etc/ssh/sshd_config

the result of tail -f /var/log/messages

pam_parse: unknown option; reject_username

This is the content of the ssh_config file:



#      $OpenBSD: ssh_config,v 1.19 2003/08/13 08:46:31 markus Exp $

# This is the ssh client system-wide configuration file.  See
# ssh_config(5) for more information.  This file provides defaults for
# users, and the values can be changed in per-user configuration files
# or on the command line.

# Configuration data is parsed as follows:
#  1. command line options
#  2. user-specific file
#  3. system-wide file
# Any configuration value is only changed the first time it is set.
# Thus, host-specific definitions should be at the beginning of the
# configuration file, and defaults at the end.

# Site-wide defaults for various options

# Host *
#   ForwardAgent no
#   ForwardX11 no
#   RhostsRSAAuthentication no
#   RSAAuthentication yes
   PasswordAuthentication yes
#   HostbasedAuthentication no
#   BatchMode no
#   CheckHostIP yes
#   AddressFamily any
#   ConnectTimeout 0
#   StrictHostKeyChecking ask
#   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/identity
#   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
#   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_dsa
   Port 22
   Protocol 2,1
#   Cipher 3des
#   Ciphers aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc
#   EscapeChar ~
Host *
      GSSAPIAuthentication yes
# If this option is set to yes then the remote X11 clients will have full access
# to the local X11 display. As virtually no X11 client supports the untrusted
# mode correctly we set this to yes.
       ForwardX11Trusted yes

iptables service is stopped. not running at all.

check /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny and the log files /var/log/secure and /var/log/messages

I checked both files, there are nothing in there.

Do I need add my ip in, if so, what is the format?

thanks.

nope, if they are blank thats cool, they can also be used to restrict access to services most people forget about them.

Looking at your posts above it might be you have a bad entry in pam. Check out the log files again;

/var/log/secure
/var/log/messages
/var/log/audit/audit.log

btw, when you said its a vmware server, did you mean its a guest OS on a vmware server?

it's a guest os

IN /var/log/secure

Did not receive identification string from ::ffff:172.16.139.250

in this file : /var/log/messages

There are many lines as below:


PAM-Cracklib[9775]: pam_parse: unknown option; reject_username.

Is there something with my pam_parse module?

Please advise.

I think maybe the pam modules under /etc/pam.d   need to be modified.

Please see the copy scrren for the file /etc/pam.d/sshd  .
pam-picture2.png

I dont think its that file, it might be in login or system-auth.

Unfortunately I dont have a CentOS 4.9 box I can use to check PAM.

Can you verify the pam package?

rpm -V pam
ls -altr /etc/pam.d

Select all Open in new window

I'm assuming it does local auth as well and you dont have some strange network auth setup, try running

authconfig --test

Select all Open in new window

It should tell you what its expecting, check the man page for details.

here are the results. Unfortunately, I couldn't copy and paste the result to here, have to use the copy screen from vmware console.
ssh3.JPG
pam-picture4.png
pam-picture3.png

Here is the detail of /etc/pam.d/system-auth file:
system-auth.png

system-auth was modified which is fine if thats what you needed for your setup but its worth having a look

there it is, edit the system-auth file and hash out the line with the reject_username

how to test to bypass the system-auth file?

I want to first identify the problem, then consider how to resolve it.

Here I am attaching the detail of this system-auth file for your scrutinization.
system--001.png
system-002.png

line 14, put a # at the start and save it, then try and ssh in
open another console window and try and login locally too or use ssh localhost in the console

I found this if you need cracklib enabled
http://www.deer-run.com/~hal/sysadmin/pam_cracklib.html

after I modified this system-auth file and run ssh localhost as root, it shows "Permission denied, please try again.

please see the copy screen.
new.png

ok, put the cracklib line back but just remove the reject_username so it reads;

password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3 minlen=8 minclass=3

Select all Open in new window

the result is the same:

Please see the copy screen.
ssh-error.png

Here are the two configuration files.
ssh_config

system-auth

I tried to catch the log from /var/log/secure and found the following lines when tried to login

Failed password for jasony from ::ffff:172.16.49.115 port 53389 ssh2
login-error.png

I checked the secure file, it keep saying "Failed password for myusername from ::ffff:XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX(my desktop IP) port 54043 ssh2.

Please see the copy screen.
logon-error-2.png

can you reset the password??

I just reset the password for my username. but when I ssh to the server, it still says "access denied".

from the /var/log/secure file, it shows:

Failed password for jasony from  ::ffff:my ip port 60157 ssh2.

The port number is different every time I tried to login.

thanks.

Is it doing local auth? can you post the output to authconfig --test as mentioned above.

The port number mentioned in the log is the source port which varies so thats ok.

what do you mean by usering authconfig --test?

How to use it for test?

I tried to run "ssh -vvv localhost" and get the following error as it showed in the attachment.
error-003.png
error-004.png

I got it running, please see picture.
008.png

This is the second page of the result of authconfig --test command.
009.png

it uses kerberos....

do you need that?

I'm not suggesting you change it as it might affect your security policy.

running authconfig --test should have displayed printed output,

if you want to test it without then save a copy of the auth files in pam and make notes of the settings then (only if you are allowed) change the setting to disable kerberos and try that, if you can then login you now know where to look and you should involve your security team if you have one.

Alas I dont know much about kerberos.. :-D

What is this Kerberos authentication? Is the settings for Kerberos crashed?

How can I use SSH with Kerberos? Or I need disable Kerberos to use SSH, please advise.

Thanks in advance.

After I disabled Kerberos, it's still not working.

The error message is the same in /var/log/secure file.

thanks.

kerberos needs an external server for auth as far as I know. Can you post your authconfig again please.

we need to be sure its disabled.

Is there any possibility in showing more of the secure file and is there anything in messages?

I just build a 4.8 vm and the system-auth file on a base install looks like this;

#%PAM-1.0
# This file is auto-generated.
# User changes will be destroyed the next time authconfig is run.
auth        required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_env.so
auth        sufficient    /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so likeauth nullok
auth        required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so

account     required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so
account     sufficient    /lib/security/$ISA/pam_succeed_if.so uid < 100 quiet
account     required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_permit.so

password    requisite     /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3
password    sufficient    /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so nullok use_authtok md5
shadow
password    required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so

session     required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_limits.so
session     required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so

Select all Open in new window

not sure if it helps?!

The KerberoAuthenticsation is enabled.

Please see the attached copy screen from the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config.


I will copy the secure file and message file later.
kerberos-enabled.png

Here are the copy screens of the command "authconfig --test". I talked to my coworkers, they said this server is integrated with Active directory for authentication. From the second copy screen, you can see a domain controller's name.
authconfig-001.png
authconfig--002.png

I got a new problem right now, I cannot use root user to login from the console, it says root user is locked. I have to use my own account to login from the console ans su to root.

I found a line

UsePam yes

Do I need disable it for testing?

This time, it works now. After I set up KerberosAuthentication to no, it works.

# Kerberos options
KerberosAuthentication no
KerberosOrLocalPasswd no
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes


But my root account is still locked, how could I unlock it?

thanks.

did you modify the auth-config file??

Thanks experts for all of your help.