topic Re: system login problem in Operating System - HP-UX

system login problem

Chris Hilker — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:44:03 GMT

I am wondering why no one can login to our HP-UX server anymore despite presenting it with the valid users and passwords. (No caps or num lock keys are on)

Re: system login problem

harry d brown jr — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:46:48 GMT

Can you login from the console? but not via telnet or rlogin or remsh? Is inetd running?

live free or die
harry

Re: system login problem

Uday_S_Ankolekar — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:48:19 GMT

Hi,

check the permissions on the /etc/password
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 1203 May 29 11:30 passwd

Check if password file is being over written by any old password file.
Also check if password aging has been impimented as a security measure.

Goodluck,
-USA..

Re: system login problem

Craig Rants — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:48:41 GMT

What message are you getting? Does it say connection refused? Can you ping it? Can you get in from the console? Some more information would probably help everyone on this one.

Let us know,
C

Re: system login problem

A. Clay Stephenson — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:49:49 GMT

Can you login as root on the console?

Re: system login problem

Uday_S_Ankolekar — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:50:12 GMT

Hi ..

Also check On console remote mode is marked with *

Re: system login problem

Chris Hilker — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:50:43 GMT

I can't login to the console. How do you check the password file if you can't login?

Re: system login problem

Chris Hilker — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:55:16 GMT

I can ping the server. I get the standard 'invalid password' for every user I attempt to login as, including root. I am positive that I am typing them correctly. I have tried other users on the consel as well.

Re: system login problem

harry d brown jr — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:56:00 GMT

You shut the system down and boot into single user mode and check /etc/passwd.

live free or die
harry

Re: system login problem

Uday_S_Ankolekar — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 15:59:08 GMT

Hi,

Is there any way you could do a remsh to the box without any password ?? ( .rhosts, hosts.equiv file)

Re: system login problem

Craig Rants — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:01:08 GMT

To get to single user

1. Power On the System
2. Interrupt boot(Press a Key in 10 sec)
3. Yes for interacting ISL
4. hpux -is

You can then change the password if you want, check the /etc/passwd file, make sure that the /etc/securetty file does not exist or if it does it at least has the console entry in it.

Good Luck,
C

Re: system login problem

Roger Baptiste — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:10:00 GMT

<>

Nice conundrum ;-) Can you FTP to the system??

<>

The system is alive !

<>

uh oh. Did somebody whack the password file and log off?? or is your KEYBOARD having a problem?? is the NUMLOCK on?? did you try with a different keyboard? or a different system?
or from a different PC using telnet session?

Also, do you have a backdoor entry into the box, i.e RLOGIN?? Helps in this sort of times.

<< I am positive that I am typing them correctly. I have tried other users on the consel as well. >>

Go slow on this. You wouldn't want to lock all the user accounts by giving wrong passwords.

If this problem persists, power off the system and boot from single user mode
and check the /etc/passwd file. If it seems whacked , copy the original default passwd file from /usr/newconfig/etc/passwd and bring the system up. Then, you would need to get your original passwd file from some backup.

-R

Re: system login problem

David Lodge — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:11:42 GMT

What are the results of a normal login from console - is it the usual
Login:
Password:
Login incorrect

(which would tend to indicate a corrupt passwd file or corrupt tcb)

Does it affect all users (including root)

Do you get any other message, or any messages on the console?

Can you get telnet/rlogin/ssh/remsh/rexec etc to let you in?

If not you can reboot to single user mode (use CTRL-B from the console) to check the password file...

dave

Re: system login problem

Santosh Nair_1 — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:23:04 GMT

If you can't log into any account, then probably your /etc/passwd is messed up...or perhaps the login executable has improper permissions. You might have to crash the system and try to boot into single user mode as mentioned above. If THAT doesn't work, you might have to boot into a recovery shell.

-Santosh

Re: system login problem

Chris Hilker — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:43:27 GMT

The latest update... I re-booted and entered single-user mode. I looked at the /etc/passwd file. All of the encrypted passwords are '*', including root! So that was the problem. How do I now 'fix' root's password? When I type 'passwd root' it wants the old password.

Re: system login problem

Steven Sim Kok Leong — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:49:21 GMT

Hi,

Are you using HP-UX in trusted mode? If you are, then it is normal for your encrypted passwords to be '*'.

To verify, check your /tcb directory eg. ls -laR /tcb or find /tcb -name * -print.

If your TCB entries are corrupted, I suggest that you try to repair your TCB instead of repairing /etc/passwd.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong
Brainbench MVP for Unix Admin
http://www.brainbench.com

Re: system login problem

Roger Baptiste — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:50:23 GMT

<>

Did you try converting the system to a TRUSTED mode?? That's when the password entries become "star"red!!. It copies
the user account info including password
to /tcb/files/auth/*/userid file for each
user. In this userid file, there will be the password in encrypted format. If you edit it and null it out, the password will become blank.

See whether you have /tcb directory. If it is present, then your system has been converted to trusted. But, trusted conversion should not change the passwords. It will only prompt for a new password when one log's in.

How to get off the mess?? Make sure whether
your ssytem is in trusted mode, by the above
method. If it is so, then keep a copy
of /tcb directory; also keep a copy of the
existing passwd file.
Then, try unconverting the trusted to regular mode either through SAM or by running
#tsconvert -r

This should get back the password entries in
the password file.

HTH
raj

Re: system login problem

Craig Rants — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:51:10 GMT

Is the system trusted? If it is go to /tcb/files/auth/r and vi the root file.

The find the line that looks like this
:u_pwd=askjlkjlkjl:
Delete all the characters between = and :

Then you should not get asked for an old password.

C

Re: system login problem

Santosh Nair_1 — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:51:32 GMT

If all the passwords are *, then the password file was generated on a trusted system where the acutual password is stored in a directory under /tcb. Probably the /etc/password file was copied over from another system? My suggestion would be set the password for the root user, bring the system up to multiuser and reset all the remaining passwords. You can set the root password using the passwd utility. Hope this helps.

-Santosh

Re: system login problem

Steven Sim Kok Leong — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 17:14:18 GMT

Hi,

Was your root password less than 8 characters before you did the conversion? I have a feeling the length of your root password being too short was the cause.

In trusted mode, HP-UX forces your password to be 8 characters or more (as far as I can remember), thus any less-than-8-characters password before the conversion would be rendered invalid.

If this is the case, then it is a matter of unconverting your trusted system to untrusted mode, changing the root password to longer than 8 characters, then re-converting it back to trusted mode, using tsconvert.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong
Brainbench MVP for Unix Admin
http://www.brainbench.com