LinuxQuestions.org - SSH - Access denied for user by PAM account configuration (unable to identify the reason)

Hi,

I am trying to connect to the Linux server via SSH (using PUTTY) and when I enter username (username is oracle) and password, I always get the "Server unexpectedly closed network connection". However using root I can connect without an issue.

So I tried to debug SSH using the non-root user and found that occurred error is "Access denied for user by PAM account configuration".

I checked /etc/security/access.conf and /etc/ssh/sshd_config but unable to identify an error. Please provide your advise to solve this issue.

debug output (username is oracle)

Quote:

[root@linux-server ~]# /usr/sbin/sshd -d -p 2223
debug1: sshd version OpenSSH_4.3p2
debug1: private host key: #0 type 0 RSA1
debug1: read PEM private key done: type RSA
debug1: private host key: #1 type 1 RSA
debug1: read PEM private key done: type DSA
debug1: private host key: #2 type 2 DSA
debug1: rexec_argv[0]='/usr/sbin/sshd'
debug1: rexec_argv[1]='-d'
debug1: rexec_argv[2]='-p'
debug1: rexec_argv[3]='2223'
debug1: Bind to port 2223 on 0.0.0.0.
Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 2223.
socket: Address family not supported by protocol
Generating 768 bit RSA key.
RSA key generation complete.
debug1: Server will not fork when running in debugging mode.
debug1: rexec start in 4 out 4 newsock 4 pipe -1 sock 7
debug1: inetd sockets after dupping: 3, 3
Connection from 192.168.6.37 port 5953
debug1: Client protocol version 2.0; client software version PuTTY_Release_0.60
debug1: no match: PuTTY_Release_0.60
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-1.99-OpenSSH_4.3
debug1: permanently_set_uid: 74/74
debug1: list_hostkey_types: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: client->server aes256-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: kex: server->client aes256-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST_OLD received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: KEX done
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method none
debug1: attempt 0 failures 0
debug1: PAM: initializing for "oracle"
debug1: PAM: setting PAM_RHOST to "windows-client"
debug1: PAM: setting PAM_TTY to "ssh"
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method password
debug1: attempt 1 failures 1
debug1: PAM: password authentication accepted for oracle
debug1: do_pam_account: called
Failed password for oracle from 192.168.6.37 port 5953 ssh2
Access denied for user oracle by PAM account configuration
debug1: do_cleanup
debug1: do_cleanup
debug1: PAM: cleanup
[root@linux-server ~]#

/etc/security/access.conf file

Quote:

# Login access control table.
#
# Comment line must start with "#", no space at front.
# Order of lines is important.
#
# When someone logs in, the table is scanned for the first entry that
# matches the (user, host) combination, or, in case of non-networked
# logins, the first entry that matches the (user, tty) combination. The
# permissions field of that table entry determines whether the login will
# be accepted or refused.
#
# Format of the login access control table is three fields separated by a
# ":" character:
#
# [Note, if you supply a 'fieldsep=|' argument to the pam_access.so
# module, you can change the field separation character to be
# '|'. This is useful for configurations where you are trying to use
# pam_access with X applications that provide PAM_TTY values that are
# the display variable like "host:0".]
#
# permission : users : origins
#
# The first field should be a "+" (access granted) or "-" (access denied)
# character.
#
# The second field should be a list of one or more login names, group
# names, or ALL (always matches). A pattern of the form user@host is
# matched when the login name matches the "user" part, and when the
# "host" part matches the local machine name.
#
# The third field should be a list of one or more tty names (for
# non-networked logins), host names, domain names (begin with "."), host
# addresses, internet network numbers (end with "."), ALL (always
# matches), NONE (matches no tty on non-networked logins) or
# LOCAL (matches any string that does not contain a "." character).
#
# You can use @netgroupname in host or user patterns; this even works
# for @usergroup@@hostgroup patterns.
#
# The EXCEPT operator makes it possible to write very compact rules.
#
# The group file is searched only when a name does not match that of the
# logged-in user. Both the user's primary group is matched, as well as
# groups in which users are explicitly listed.
#
# TTY NAMES: Must be in the form returned by ttyname(3) less the initial
# "/dev" (e.g. tty1 or vc/1)
#
##############################################################################
#
# Disallow non-root logins on tty1
#
#-:ALL EXCEPT root:tty1
#
# Disallow console logins to all but a few accounts.
#
#-:ALL EXCEPT wheel shutdown sync:LOCAL
#
# Disallow non-local logins to privileged accounts (group wheel).
#
#-:wheel:ALL EXCEPT LOCAL .win.tue.nl
#
# Some accounts are not allowed to login from anywhere:
#
#-:wsbscaro wsbsecr wsbspac wsbsym wscosor wstaiwde:ALL
#
# All other accounts are allowed to login from anywhere.
#
##############################################################################
# All lines from here up to the end are building a more complex example.
##############################################################################
#
# User "root" should be allowed to get access via cron .. tty5 tty6.
#+ : root : cron crond :0 tty1 tty2 tty3 tty4 tty5 tty6
#
# User "root" should be allowed to get access from hosts with ip addresses.
#+ : root : 192.168.200.1 192.168.200.4 192.168.200.9
#+ : root : 127.0.0.1
#
# User "root" should get access from network 192.168.201.
# This term will be evaluated by string matching.
# comment: It might be better to use network/netmask instead.
# The same is 192.168.201.0/24 or 192.168.201.0/255.255.255.0
#+ : root : 192.168.201.
#
# User "root" should be able to have access from domain.
# Uses string matching also.
#+ : root : .foo.bar.org
#
# User "root" should be denied to get access from all other sources.
#- : root : ALL
#
# User "foo" and members of netgroup "nis_group" should be
# allowed to get access from all sources.
# This will only work if netgroup service is available.
#+ : @nis_group foo : ALL
#
# User "john" should get access from ipv4 net/mask
#+ : john : 127.0.0.0/24
#
# User "john" should get access from ipv4 as ipv6 net/mask
#+ : john : ::ffff:127.0.0.0/127
#
# User "john" should get access from ipv6 host address
#+ : john : 2001:4ca0:0:101::1
#
# User "john" should get access from ipv6 host address (same as above)
#+ : john : 2001:4ca0:0:101:0:0:0:1
#
# User "john" should get access from ipv6 net/mask
#+ : john : 2001:4ca0:0:101::/64
#
# All other users should be denied to get access from all sources.
#- : ALL : ALL
#
# User "oracle" should get access from all sources.
+ : oracle : ALL

/etc/ssh/sshd_config file

Quote:

# $OpenBSD: sshd_config,v 1.73 2005/12/06 22:38:28 reyk Exp $

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See
# sshd_config(5) for more information.

# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin

# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with
# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where
# possible, but leave them commented. Uncommented options change a
# default value.

Port 2222
AllowUsers root oracle
#Protocol 2,1
#Protocol 2
#AddressFamily any
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
#ListenAddress ::

# HostKey for protocol version 1
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
# HostKeys for protocol version 2
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key

# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key
#KeyRegenerationInterval 1h
#ServerKeyBits 768

# Logging
# obsoletes QuietMode and FascistLogging
#SyslogFacility AUTH
SyslogFacility AUTHPRIV
#LogLevel INFO

# Authentication:

#LoginGraceTime 2m
#PermitRootLogin yes
#StrictModes yes
#MaxAuthTries 6

#RSAAuthentication yes
#PubkeyAuthentication yes
#AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
#RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
#HostbasedAuthentication no
# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for
# RhostsRSAAuthentication and HostbasedAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no
# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
#IgnoreRhosts yes

# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
#PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no
PasswordAuthentication yes

# Change to no to disable s/key passwords
#ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes
#KerberosGetAFSToken no

# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIAuthentication no
GSSAPIAuthentication yes
#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes
GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes

# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication, account processing,
# and session processing. If this is enabled, PAM authentication will
# be allowed through the ChallengeResponseAuthentication mechanism.
# Depending on your PAM configuration, this may bypass the setting of
# PasswordAuthentication, PermitEmptyPasswords, and
# "PermitRootLogin without-password". If you just want the PAM account and
# session checks to run without PAM authentication, then enable this but set
# ChallengeResponseAuthentication=no
#UsePAM no
UsePAM yes

# Accept locale-related environment variables
AcceptEnv LANG LC_CTYPE LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME LC_COLLATE LC_MONETARY LC_MESSAGES
AcceptEnv LC_PAPER LC_NAME LC_ADDRESS LC_TELEPHONE LC_MEASUREMENT
AcceptEnv LC_IDENTIFICATION LC_ALL
#AllowTcpForwarding yes
#GatewayPorts no
#X11Forwarding no
X11Forwarding yes
#X11DisplayOffset 10
#X11UseLocalhost yes
#PrintMotd yes
#PrintLastLog yes
#TCPKeepAlive yes
#UseLogin no
#UsePrivilegeSeparation yes
#PermitUserEnvironment no
#Compression delayed
#ClientAliveInterval 0
#ClientAliveCountMax 3
#ShowPatchLevel no
#UseDNS yes
#PidFile /var/run/sshd.pid
#MaxStartups 10
#PermitTunnel no
#ChrootDirectory none

# no default banner path
#Banner /some/path

# override default of no subsystems
Subsystem sftp /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-server