machine not allowing login thru virtual console, only thru ssh

dsids · 01-15-2007, 12:51 AM

Hi,
I was recently faced with a strange situation with my RHEL3 machine.

The machine would not allow me to login from any of the virtual consoles, when I was physically present with the machine, but it allowed me to login through ssh over the network. When I tried logging in through root, using the virtual console, after asking for the password, an error of 'permission denied' would flash for a second before going back to the login console.

Can anyone tell me why was this happening?

Thanks
Danish

hw-tph · 01-15-2007, 07:45 AM

See if the console names are listed in /etc/securetty. This file lists console names from which root is allowed to log in. Allowing at least one local physical console is a good idea...and IMHO it is also a good idea to disallow remote root logins using ssh (log in as user and then use su or sudo to gain root privileges).

Refer to securetty(5) for more information.

Håkan

dsids · 01-15-2007, 11:46 AM

Hi,
I uninstalld openssl and its devel package because I was trying to build apache. But then unfortunately using
#scp @hostname

gave me an error lybcrypto.so.4: no such file or directory..

so I restarted the sshd, but I lost the shell as soon as it stopped..Ever since Iv not been able to log in thru ssh..

#ssh @hostname: connection closed

Thanks
Danish