Re: Peculiar problem with root login

[David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>]

On 06/12/2017 06:39 AM, Harry Putnam wrote:
> Running debian jesse in a vbox vm on a Solaris host
>
> I have what seems like an unusual problem with root login on this
> host.
>
> I've done the normal things one does to allow root login; that is, add
>
>    PermitRootLogin yes
>
> to /etc/ssh/sshd_config
>
> Restart ssh, and in fact this host has been rebooted a few times since
> adding that Permit line.
>
> I set sudo up to work with no passwd for a certain user long ago and
> so I was able to redo root passwd just to make sure there wasn't some
> error there.
>
> Still, I cannot login as root user  I don't mean at the main login
> screen one gets on bootup, but from an xterm in a running session.
>
> Of course, checked to see if Caps lock was on...
>
> I've checked output of ssh -vvv root@localhost, and see nothing very
> exciting.. just asking for password and rejecting it repeatedly:
>
> debug1: Next authentication method: password
>   root@localhost's password:
>   debug2: we sent a password packet, wait for reply
>   debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
>   Permission denied, please try again.
>
> This password has been in use for many years on vm hosts behind
> firewall etc etc. So, there is literally NO chance I'm just getting it
> wrong.  Not to mention as I said above that I redid the passwd in this
> most recent attempt to get it working.
>
> I'm fresh out of ideas as to what else to do here.
>
> The auth log shows:
>
>   Jun 11 14:50:55 d2 sshd[2830]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication
>   failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=d.local.lan
>   user=root
>
>   Jun 11 14:50:57 d2 sshd[2830]: Failed password for root from
>   127.0.0.1 port 54522 ssh2

Please run the following commands from the console of the jesse vm as 
root and paste your console session (prompts, commands entered, output 
obtained).  If you redact anything, substitute the phrase '<redacted>':

# cat /etc/debian_version

# uname -a

# dpkg-query --show openssh-server

# dpkg-query --show openssh-client

# ls -1 /etc/ssh/*ssh*

# ls -1 /root/.ssh

# egrep -v '^.*#' /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep .

# ssh localhost

# tail /var/log/auth.log


David