sftp "Your password was changed by root"?

[Steve Post]

I setup a new chrooted sftp user. I set a password for this user.
I run "sftp user1@mybox"
Then I get:
"Your password was changed by root
password:"
I enter the correct password.
I get:
"Your password was changed by root
password:"
I enter the correct password..AGAIN.
This process repeats over and over and over and over.....

I thought maybe the account was locked. I checked. It's not locked.
I have the user's shell be per the hp document: /opt/ssh/utils/sftponly

Am I missing something?

I would think if I change the password for user user1 as root, you would think I could actually use be able to use it right?

[Steve Post]

I got further.
According to the syslog.log file, I am not getting past PAM authorization. I said it is not a valid account.

Then I remembered there is an option in sshd_config that will let you see who is allowed to use sftp.

That was part of it. I now got past that spot.
Now it just jumps right back out.
But no more "Your password was changed by root".

[Sameer_Nirmal · Accepted solution]

Did you run the scipt /opt/ssh/ssh_chroot_setup.sh ?
Ownership and permissions of sftponly ?

You can refer the /opt/ssh/README.hp or chroot script to verify if something is missed.

[Steve Post]

Yes I ran the ssh_chroot_setup.sh. That part was fine....sort of.

I found my problem.

Problem number 1. I kept getting "Root has changed your password" because I never got past the password part. And I never got past this password part because PAM said I'm not an authorized user. And PAM said I'm not an authorized user because /opt/ssh/etc/sshd_config didn't have the user listed as an allowed ssh user.

Problem number 2. Now, after I correctly log in, I immediately get kicked out.
Cause? The computer didn't know what /opt/ssh/utils/sftponly was. Is it in /etc/shells? Yes. Is it really at /opt/ssh/utils? Yes. Is it at /newroot/./opt/ssh/utils? NOPE. Ah HA. That was it. The ssh_chroot_setup.sh utility should have automatically copied over "sftponly" to under the /newroot/opt/ssh/utils/. It didn't.

So I'm fine now. But there's another thing too. I see it dumped /etc/passwd and /etc/group to the /newroot/./etc directory. I think that's not a very good idea. I wiped out just about all of it. I remember reading about this in one of the hp (or wuftp) documents.