Linux: Authentication token is no longer valid

遇见问题：

[oracle@sxty-jkdb-184:/u01/rman]crontab -l

Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required
You (oracle) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

PAM Configuration

The /etc/pam.d/ directory contain the PAM configuration files for each PAM-aware application.Each service has file in the /etc/pam.d which has the same name as the service.

For Instance, the crond service pam file is below:

[root@sxty-jkdb-184 pam.d]# more /etc/pam.d/crond  
#
# The PAM configuration file for the cron daemon
#
#
# No PAM authentication called, auth modules not needed
account    required   pam_access.so
account    include    password-auth
session    required   pam_loginuid.so
session    include    password-auth
auth       include    password-auth

PAM Configuration File Format

Module_interface control_flag module_name module_argument

1. account required pam_access.so
2. account include password-auth
3. session required pam_loginuid.so
4. session include password-auth
5. auth include password-auth

Module_interface: 
auth: This module interface authenticates use. For example, it request and verifies the validity of a password. 
account: This module interface verified whether the access is allowed. For example, it check if a user account has expired of if a user is allowed to log in at a partical time of day. 
password: This module interfce is used to changing user passwords. 
session:This module interface configure and manager user sessions.

PAN Control Flag: 

required:The module result must be successful for authentication to continue. If the test fails at this point, the users will not be notified. 
requisite:Unlike required,if the test fails, the user will be notified immediately with a message reflectin the first failed required or requisite module test. 
optional:The result is ignored. 
include:Unlike the other controls,it does not relate to how the module result is handled.

Solution

Because the crond service must authenticate the user’s password. 
So we can check the user password information:

chage -l oracle
Last password change                                    : Jun 29, 2016
Password expires                                        : Sep 27, 2016
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 90
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

If you find the password has expired, you can change the password and set the maxdays to 9999.

1. password username:
2. Command : chage -M 9999 username

After that ,you can check if the file /etc/shadow has updated the maxdays for the specified user.Just like this:

oracle:$6$ekeLH8BN$jMHTbAD93/tshRAXLT8C4yXhLLKjGO/uD2XlYTGY5FEutldUMIc2yBMRkR.JSvoJi9h0d/rRVwtfG8XJWhco.1:17266:0:9999:7:::
grid:$6$SxaJT4Oo$ywpu/7nAEAuml1pGr7KVNiOjjEiJ/JBJFW3.cEwog2Wuy2pAetL0geWz.xc3krgX1Bs69K55pTUHH305xSScG1:17266:0:9999:7:::