Why does passwd -S show "Alternate authentication scheme in use?"

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • I noticed a difference in how Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions report the state of users with a * (asterisk) in the password field in /etc/shadow

  • In RHEL 4, the ftp user shows an asterisk in the password field and passwd -S ftp shows the following for the ftp user:

[root@host]# grep ^ftp /etc/shadow
ftp:*:14470:0:99999:7:::
[root@host]# passwd -S ftp
Alternate authentication scheme in use.
  • In RHEL 5 and 6, the ftp user shows an asterisk in the password field and passwd -S ftp shows the following for the ftp user:
[root@host]# grep ^ftp /etc/shadow
ftp:*:15398:0:99999:7:::
[root@host]# passwd -S ftp
ftp LK 2012-02-27 0 99999 7 -1 (Alternate authentication scheme in use.)
  • Is the account locked, or in some other state? What methods can be used to authenticate?

  • What does "Alternate authentication scheme in use." mean?

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase, tools, and much more.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In

New to Red Hat?

Learn more about Red Hat subscriptions

Using a Red Hat product through a public cloud?

How to access this content