Linux : Could not get shadow information for user

By | October 27, 2013

Having problems connecting to your server with SSH and get this error messages in the system logs?

sshd[0000]: input_userauth_request: invalid user <user>
sshd[0000]: error: Could not get shadow information for <user>
sshd[0000]: Failed password for invalid user <user> from 0.0.0.0 port 00000 ssh2

This mean you are missing “UsePAM” directive and/or the directive is set to “no”.

Edit your OpenSSH server config file :

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Then make sure you have the following parameter set to “yes” :

UsePAM yes

Restart OpenSSH :

service sshd restart