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KB-7070: ssh to server failed with 'Too many authentication failures for <user>'

28 June,16 at 12:17 AM

Applies to: 

All versions of Centrify DirectControl on all platforms


Problem:

When attempting to ssh to a server running DirectControl the attempt fails with the following error:

Received disconnect from <IPAddressOfTargetMachine>: 2: Too many authentication failures for <user>
 
If the directory ~<user>/.ssh is removed then ssh is successful, but it fails again once ~<user>/.ssh is recreated after each successful ssh session.
 
Login as the <user> via the 'su' command works successfully on the server.


Cause:
 
The maximum auth tries was set too low in sshd_config file.  Note the example below:
 
MaxAuthTries 4
 
Here’s the sshd DEBUG3 level logs which indicating that when ~<user>/.ssh directory exists, putblickey would be attempted.  If that failed, it exceeded the maximum allowed auth tries
 
$ grep -i -E "userauth_finish|userauth-request|attempt |Failed | Too many auth" sshd_fails.log
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method none [preauth]
debug1: attempt 0 failures 0 [preauth]
debug3: userauth_finish: failure partial=0 next methods="publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password,keyboard-interactive" [preauth]
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method gssapi-keyex [preauth]
debug1: attempt 1 failures 0 [preauth]
Failed gssapi-with-mic for oracle from 10.5.40.234 port 43581 ssh2
debug3: userauth_finish: failure partial=0 next methods="publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password,keyboard-interactive" [preauth]
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method gssapi-with-mic [preauth]
debug1: attempt 2 failures 1 [preauth]
Failed gssapi-with-mic for oracle from 10.5.40.234 port 43581 ssh2
debug3: userauth_finish: failure partial=0 next methods="publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password,keyboard-interactive" [preauth]
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method gssapi-with-mic [preauth]
debug1: attempt 3 failures 2 [preauth]
debug3: userauth_finish: failure partial=0 next methods="publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password,keyboard-interactive" [preauth]
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method publickey [preauth]
debug1: attempt 4 failures 2 [preauth]
Failed publickey for oracle from 10.5.40.234 port 43581 ssh2: RSA b2:2d:71:4f:14:42:ba:cb:b1:12:2f:28:fe:9f:76:08
debug3: userauth_finish: failure partial=0 next methods="publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password,keyboard-interactive" [preauth]
debug1: userauth-request for user oracle service ssh-connection method keyboard-interactive [preauth]
debug1: attempt 5 failures 3 [preauth]
Disconnecting: Too many authentication failures for oracle [preauth]

Resolution:

Update sshd_config to increase the maximum auth tries to something higher such as the example below:

MaxAuthTries 8

This allows 8 auth tries.  The sshd daemon needs to be restarted for this change to take effect. 

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