Unable to Complete Log in (with correct password)

[Benjaphar]

I built a Plex server about two years ago and it’s been running close to constantly since. I access it through my main Windows 10 PC via the webui. I typically keep Chrome tabs open for the main Unraid webui, Plex, NZBGet, Radarr, Sonarr,and Tautulli. The other day, the webui tab appeared to time out after sitting untouched for a few days. I refreshed it and it prompted me to log in (which it doesn’t typically do) and then it wouldn’t accept my credentials, which I know are correct. The other tabs for my Docker containers continued to work fine, so I know the server was still up and running. I messed around with my Windows credentials, cleared my browser cache, tried other browsers, and restarted my PC, but had no luck.

 

I hooked a monitor and keyboard up to the server but had no signal to the monitor. Eventually, I quick-pressed the main power button which initiated a server shutdown. After a reboot, I was greeted with the log in request, which I still couldn’t get past. I rebooted and tried in the GUI mode, as well as Safe Mode without plugins, but nothing other than GUI mode giving me a message that said something like “Failed to execute login command.” In the non-GUI mode, I can tell a slight difference between when I enter the correct password and an incorrect one. After the correct password it shows me the Unraid version and the number of failed log in attempts before popping up the log in prompt again.

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

[testdasi]

Posting some screenshots may help with diagnosing your problem.

 

While you are at it, run a disk check on your USB stick. A corrupted USB stick has been known to cause weird problems.

 

Also, do you have your server exposed to the Internet?

We need to eliminate the possibility that you got hacked and had your root password changed.

[Frank1940]

Also, try entering the user name--  root --- and just press the <enter> key when prompt for the password.   (It is possible that there is a corruption on the Flash drive that prevents that password hash file from being read.)

 

If that does not work, Shutdown the server and put the flash drive into a PC.  Navigate to the  config folder/directory.  Now, delete rename these three files---   passwd    smbpasswd   shadow

 

Put the Flash drive back in to the server and reboot.  Login using the instruction in the first sentence of this post.   Then set your passwords up again.  I would suggestion that you make it a secure one.  You might also consider installing the Fix Common Problems plugin and it has a setting called "Number of allowed invalid logins per day"  for detecting any break-in attempt. 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Frank1940

[Benjaphar]

11 hours ago, testdasi said:

Posting some screenshots may help with diagnosing your problem.

 

While you are at it, run a disk check on your USB stick. A corrupted USB stick has been known to cause weird problems.

 

Also, do you have your server exposed to the Internet?

We need to eliminate the possibility that you got hacked and had your root password changed.

I ran a chkdsk on the flash drive and it has no errors. I don't believe the password has been changed as it acts different when I enter the correct password versus when I enter an incorrect one. After the correct one, it shows the last log in and the previous log in failures (matching the attempts with the wrong password).

[Benjaphar]

10 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

Also, try entering the user name--  root --- and just press the <enter> key when prompt for the password.   (It is possible that there is a corruption on the Flash drive that prevents that password hash file from being read.)

 

If that does not work, Shutdown the server and put the flash drive into a PC.  Navigate to the  config folder/directory.  Now, delete rename these three files---   passwd    smbpasswd   shadow

 

Put the Flash drive back in to the server and reboot.  Login using the instruction in the first sentence of this post.   Then set your passwords up again.  I would suggestion that you make it a secure one.  You might also consider installing the Fix Common Problems plugin and it has a setting called "Number of allowed invalid logins per day"  for detecting any break-in attempt. 

I'd tried root with no password and that didn't work. I shut it down and pulled the flash drive into my Windows machine and backed up and renamed those files like you suggested. And it appears to have worked. The server is back up, webui works again, and all Docker containers are up and running.

 

Question - Is there anything other than a password issue that could've been resolved by deleting passwd, smbpasswd, or shadow?

 

Thanks for your help. I'm gonna go let the wife know Plex is back on the menu.

[Frank1940]

If you were truly entering what you thought was the correct password, there are only two possibilities that I can think of.

 

First, someone broke into your server and changed that password. That is the reason that @testdasi asked if the server was exposed to the Internet.

 

Second, there was some sort of corruption in in the password system of Linux.  This is a fairly complex setup to prevent someone from easily getting user passwords.  When you enter a password, it goes through a one-way hashing process and then is compared to what is stored in the actual password file (which I think is shadow).  IF you want a more complete description of the process, I would suggest that you google something like  linux password process. 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Frank1940

[Teknishun]

Did you ever get to the bottom of this?

 

I seem to be in the same situation. I can't seem to login on the local 192.168.1.* address but I can login via the remote tailscale IP with the same credentials.

 

If I'm on the local IP and use and wrong password it says "Invalid username or password". The correct password gets sent to /Main and then 302 redirects straight back to /login

[ljm42]

8 hours ago, Teknishun said:

If I'm on the local IP and use and wrong password it says "Invalid username or password". The correct password gets sent to /Main and then 302 redirects straight back to /login

 

Try clearing your browser cache

[Teknishun]

2 hours ago, ljm42 said:

 

Try clearing your browser cache

I tried clearing the cookies in Chrome devtools and the cache is turned off when devtools is open. Still no joy.

[ljm42]

If you have been switching between http and https, your browser can get confused. Completely restart your browser and see if that helps.

You mentioned you could login via tailscale, exactly what url are you using (and is it http or https)?  Once you are in please download your diagnostics.zip file (from Tools -> Diagnostics) and upload here. 

 

Also, what is the exact url you are trying to login with to that doesn't work?  is it http or https?  I want to compare these urls to the settings in your diagnostics.zip file.

[Teknishun]

Hmm, I tried Incognito and the local IP worked so went into Dev tools > Storage then Clear Site Data. This has now worked and local IP logs in without the redirect.

I just tried clearing the cookies before.

 

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

[ljm42]

Glad to hear it!

[Drey1001]

I recently upgraded my Plex server due to the ram shitting the bed and when faced with my login I’m able to enter my login name but when ready to type the password it simply does not let me type anything. I have tried some of the above solutions but nothing has resolved my issue