PAM error for non root users, unable to log in

Solution In Progress - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Issue

  • Non-root users universally seem to fail in attempting to log in via ssh OR via console. This applies for ALL non-root users, and passwords appear to be correct as per inspection of /etc/shadow.
  • Seeing the following server-side errors when attempting to ssh
[root@system ~]# /usr/sbin/sshd -eD
Server listening on :: port 22.
Bind to port 22 on 0.0.0.0 failed: Address already in use.
Failed password for system1 from 192.168.1.1 port 40188 ssh2
Access denied for user user1 by PAM account configuration

Resolution

  • When researching a different issue, we found that the file /etc/nologin exists on system1, which disables access for all non-root users. I renamed the file to /etc/nologin.disabled, and non-root users were able to successfully login to the server.
  • Component
  • pam

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