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Locked out of WHM and SSH password root login

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by BianchiDude, May 2, 2012.

  1. BianchiDude

    BianchiDude Well-Known Member
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    This morning I had a few server today where I was locked out of WHM and SSH password root login. Luckily I had an SSH key, I tried resetting the password, no luck, non-root users could SSH in OK.

    I ran upcp and then was able to log in.

    Did anyone else have this problem?
     
    #1 BianchiDude, May 2, 2012
  2. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
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    Hello :)

    I suggest checking the brute force history via:

    "WHM >> Security Center >> cPHulk Brute Force Protection"

    It's possible the "root" user was locked out by cPhulk, thus you were unable to login. You can also search for your IP address in:

    # /usr/local/cpanel/logs/cphulkd.log

    Thank you.
     
    #2 cPanelMichael, May 2, 2012
  3. texo

    texo Well-Known Member

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    No, this happened to me today as well. Not using cphulk.
    Luckily I too had SSH key access (from another server which backs up to the server I was locked out of).
    I changed root password via SSH from the second server, but that didn't make any difference.

    I then thought to check sshd config file and saw that allow root login was commented out (disallowing root access via SSH).

    Don't know how this happened, I am the only person with access to this server.
     
    #3 texo, May 2, 2012
  4. tmyrdal

    tmyrdal Registered

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    Me also is experiance this Im totaly locked out now, I can log in to my server with SSH but when I write passwd and then write in my new password. Its seams to work as I dont get anny error message. But I cant still not log in to root WHM in webbrowser.
     
    #4 tmyrdal, Aug 3, 2013
  5. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
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    Could you let us know if you checked to see if cPHulkd was the culprit?

    Thank you.
     
    #5 cPanelMichael, Aug 5, 2013
  6. tomxml

    tomxml Registered

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    I am having the same problem. I am unable to log in with root to WHM nor to SSH. I am able to log in with other users though from the same IP.
    On some servers I had a reseller account with all permissions, so I was able to white list my IP after loggin in.
    Then I was able to log in as root again.

    It does not seem like a normal brute force, because usually it blocks an IP, not a user.
    Can it be that a user (root) has been blocked?
    What can I do if the root user is blocked and I cannot access WHM nor SSH?
    Is there any way to solve this issue?

    Thanks
     
    #6 tomxml, Aug 22, 2013
  7. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
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    Yes, it's possible for cPHulk to prevent users from authenticating. There is setting for this in "WHM Home » Security Center » cPHulk Brute Force Protection":

    "Maximum Failures By Account"

    You can wait for the lockout time period to end, or consult with your data center/hosting provider to have them disable cPHulk with console access via the following commands:
    Code:
    for i in `ps aux | grep -i "cphulkd - process" | awk {'print $2'}` ;do kill -9 $i ;done
/usr/local/cpanel/bin/cphulk_pam_ctl --disable
    Thank you.
     
    #7 cPanelMichael, Aug 22, 2013
  8. mjdj1999

    mjdj1999 Member

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    I am using the latest version of WHM and Centos 6.

    I am using a dedicated server with OVH and I am in recovery mode at the moment. I can see Centos files but nothing else. I cannot run any cpanel commands in SSH but can run other basic commands. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I am on the phone with them again. The first go around with them wasn't very productive. They don't seem to want to do this.

    I have fixed the problem so now I am going to post what I did to help others. I worked on it for nearly 10 hours.

    I use OVH for my server and although they have good products, they provide zero (0) support for it.

    Here is some documentation that helped me (If you use OVH):
    (You must follow this word for word and dont skip a step)

    When you are done your command will look like this:
    When it does, run this (Taken from Michaels post above):
    Change your password:
    Put your "Netboot" back to "Hard Drive" then restart.

    This was all from me setting cpHulk to be too aggressive and clearing my browser cache. I hope that this will help someone else in the future.
     
    #8 mjdj1999, Nov 1, 2014
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2014
  9. manie20

    manie20 Registered

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    I wish to comment on this issue.
    I have the same with my DNSOnly cluster.

    Is there a way to know when the account lock will be released again?
    (I assume cPhulk blocked out my root account as well. )

    Sadly my hosting provider does not offer a rescure image for my VPS, so I need to figure out howto get back on.
    ( Currently I can only login as a normal user. but switching to root is impossible.)

    Thanks for any insights.

    Regards,
    Armand
     
    #9 manie20, Nov 17, 2014
  10. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Forums Analyst
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    You can ask your VPS provider to enter your VPS from the hardware node and run the following commands to disable cPHulk:

    Code:
    for i in `ps aux | grep -i "cphulkd - process" | awk {'print $2'}` ;do kill -9 $i ;done
/usr/local/cpanel/bin/cphulk_pam_ctl --disable
    Thank you.
     
    #10 cPanelMichael, Nov 17, 2014
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