Problem with SSH and PAM

MBCook · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 12:05 am Post subject: Problem with SSH and PAM

OK, I've got one for you all. I've poked around and can't seem to find an answer to this one. I have ssh on my box, simply emerged it like everyone else does. Now here is the problem: I can't get it to accept a password correctly. I know this sounds weird but here is what's happening:

Try to connect (PuTTY from a windows box, or just "ssh" from a command line)
Asks username/password
ALWAYS rejects the password. Good passwords, bad passwords, empty passwords whatever. I've tried root (and enable it in the config file so I could), a normal user, all sorts of stuff.

I don't get this at all. In the system's logs, it complains about PAM saying the password was invalid, but I know it IS valid. I've changed the config file's options, tried the origional again, tried the sshd_config file from my other linux box (runs Debian, also openssh). No matter what I try it won't let me in. It asks me a password, but always says it wrong, even though I know it's not. From my gentoo box (the one I'm having a problem on), from my debian box, from 2 different Windows boxes. I've tried resetting the daemon many times (always after changing the config file, of course) and just about everything else I can think of. I do alot of work through SSH so this is driving me NUTS. I haven't had any other problems (users can log into the box physically, etc) so I know this isn't some kind of massive corruption problem. This box was running gentoo just fine, and I had no problems. SSH ran just fine. Then the hard drive started making funky sounds, so I replaced it and took the opportunity to reinstall the system to get rid of the stuff I didn't use. Now I've got everything on that I use, it all works fine, EXCEPT SSH.

:cry:

Please help, I'm desperte. :cry:

_________________
-- Michael

Read an intelligent book like "The New Thought Police" or "The War Against Boys", and learn the TRUTH.

lx · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 10:54 am Post subject:

can you use ssh on the box itself? well INAE but the only thing I can think of is that keys are recreated during the new install, but this normally wouldn't be a problem not for ssh1 protocol, i suppose you have the same openssh version etc and no /etc/hosts.deny,

Hope you fix it,

Cya lX.
_________________
"Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.", Frank Zappa

gtsquirrel · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 5:49 pm Post subject: Same problem

Hey,

I'm actually having the same problem, but it's with VSFTP and SSH. I'm pretty sure that it would happen with any "server" service I would install too. From what I can tell, everything is configured properly (though it apparently isn't). PAM is set up correctly under /etc/pam.d/, my /etc/hosts.allow file contains a single line:

gtsquirrel · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 5:57 pm Post subject: Possible Fix

FYI, another bug under the forums was this same thing. Try this command:

# usermod -s /bin/bash <username>

This seems to fix the issue. Also, try running etc-update afterwards. I dunno why the hell it works, but it got mine working.

lx · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 9:42 pm Post subject: Re: Possible Fix

MBCook · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 9:52 pm Post subject:

Yeah, that's odd. It worked fine. Anyways, I added the shell to the /etc/passwd entry (odd that it wasn't there before) and now it works. Thanks all.
_________________
-- Michael

Read an intelligent book like "The New Thought Police" or "The War Against Boys", and learn the TRUTH.

rac · Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2002 2:35 am Post subject: Re: Possible Fix

lx · Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2002 12:21 pm Post subject:

I am hereby corrected, although the last half of the sentence is correct, ;-)

still the conclusion is horribly false, ;-)

; my reasoning was, if you login using ssh, it should retrieve your shell from the /etc/passwd file, and that not stating a shell would be equal to /bin/nologin or /bin/false for security reasons.
I justed tested it (to make sure) and without a shell in /etc/passwd ( +removing the shell line from pam) ssh just starts a shell (however it doesn't run the users .bash_login (cause I didn't get my custom protection scheme ;-)

).

Cya lX.
_________________
"Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.", Frank Zappa