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brasey/Too many authentication failures for username.md

Last active August 29, 2015 14:09
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Too many authentication failures for username
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Too many authentication failures for username.md

Too many authentication failures for username

The problem

I was getting this error when trying to SSH to a brand new CentOS 7 VM I was setting up. I hadn't even done anything yet, so I was confused until I realized I had hit the 'MaxAuthTries' limit configred in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the VM by issuing a single command.

I have a few (ok, 9) SSH keys in my ~/.ssh directory. When you issue an SSH connection request without specifying which key to use via the -i option, SSH tries to use each key.

The default MaxAuthTries value on a CentOS 7 box is 6.

9 > 6 = Too many authentication failures for me.

The fix

I used the console to edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set MaxAuthTries 30. That allowed me to put my SSH key on the VM, and now I can connect. Obviously set MaxAuthTries back to 6 when you're done.

To reset the thing that locked you out, do this (on RHEL-flavored things, anyway)

pam_tally2 --reset --user <USERNAME>
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