Resolved: ACS4.2 ssh fails but telnet OK for same user

[GRAEME DANIELSON]

An ACS Internal DB user cannot ssh to a 3750 switch but telnet works fine.

Authentication method is TACACS+
Other users in the same ACS user group as the problem user can both ssh and telnet to this switch OK.

Debug on the switch shows:

TPLUS: Received authen response status FAIL (3)

The ACS Failed Attempts log shows

ACS password invalid

The ACS Auth.log shows

E 3306 4384 0x27e2 Plain DB pass check for <username> failed"

for the failed username.

The 3750 switch is running 12.2(44)SE6
ACS is 4.2.0.124p11

Really puzzling that telnet using exact same user/password works fine.
Does anyone have any clues/pointers?
TIA, Graeme

[Ganesh Hariharan]

An ACS Internal DB user cannot ssh to a 3750 switch but telnet works fine.
Authentication method is TACACS+
Other users in the same ACS user group as the problem user can both ssh and telnet to this switch OK.
Debug on the switch shows:
TPLUS: Received authen response status FAIL (3)
The ACS Failed Attempts log shows
ACS password invalid
The ACS Auth.log shows
E 3306 4384 0x27e2 Plain DB pass check for  failed" 
for the failed username.
The 3750 switch is running 12.2(44)SE6
ACS is 4.2.0.124p11
Really puzzling that telnet using exact same user/password works fine. 
Does anyone have any clues/pointers?
TIA, Graeme

Hi Graeme,

For ssh connection with switch your switches should haev cryptographic image with K9 in ios,then only you can ssh the switch.

Hope to Help !!

Ganesh.H

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[GRAEME DANIELSON]

Ganesh,  thanks for taking the time to respond but it doesn't help at all...

> Other users in the same ACS user group as the problem user can both ssh and telnet to this switch OK.

[Javier Henderson]

Try removing the user from ACS and re-adding it.

Also, does the user have any special characters in its password? If so, try changing it to something using just letters and numbers, as a troubleshooting step.

[GRAEME DANIELSON]

The password has a mix of upper case lower case and numbers - no special characters. I resolved by re-entering the same password into ACS. Strange.

[Javier Henderson]

This suggests possible corruption in the ACS database.