I have a user account on Ubuntu 18.04 which appears to be locked and cannot be unlocked.
If I try to use sudo, then I receive an error "incorrect password". I know that I am typing in the correct password.
user@server:/root$ sudo touch test
[sudo] password for user:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for user: If I switch to root and then try to login I receive an error that the account is locked due to too many failed password attempts.
+[root@server:~] 1 # login user
Account locked due to 49 failed logins
Password: I have tried to unlock the account with the following two commands:
+[root@server:~] 130 # passwd -u user
passwd: password expiry information changed.
+[root@server:~] # Here is the output of --status
+[root@server:~] 6 # passwd -S user
user P 06/15/2020 0 99999 7 -1
+[root@server:~] # I have also tried the following command to unlock:
+[root@server:~] # usermod -U user
+[root@server:~] # However I still receive the error when I use the login command:
+[root@server:~] # login user
Account locked due to 50 failed logins
Password:
Login incorrect
server login: No matter how many times I try these unlock commands, I still am unable to use sudo or login with the login command.
It appears like my account is "locked" via another mechanism.
What am I doing wrong? How can I unlock this account?
12 Answers
Nate:
I understand that you have the problem with user "user". You could use the pam_tally2 command:
$ -> whatis pam_tally2
pam_tally2 (8) - The login counter (tallying) moduleTry:
pam_tally2 --user=user --resetYou can check if the counter is reset with:
pam_tally2 --user=userThe reason is because, your login is locked by the pam module for exceeding the deny variable, generally set in /etc/pam.d/common-auth.
The methods you have tried would work, if the password or account were locked/expired in the /etc/shadow file instead.
I second @Adrian's answer here. Adding up to it
"pam_tally2 module is used to lock user accounts after certain number of failed ssh login attempts made to the system. This module keeps the count of attempted accesses and too many failed attempts."
To get the failure count, use.
sudo pam_tally2 --user=$USERTo reset the count to 0 and unlock your account
sudo pam_tally2 --user=$USER --reset
