Last Modified: Oct 16, 2023
Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP APM
Known Affected Versions:
11.5.4, 11.5.5, 11.5.6, 11.5.7, 11.5.8, 11.5.9, 11.5.10, 11.6.0, 11.6.1, 11.6.2, 11.6.3, 11.6.3.1, 11.6.3.2, 11.6.3.3, 11.6.3.4, 11.6.4, 11.6.5, 11.6.5.1, 11.6.5.2, 11.6.5.3, 12.0.0, 12.0.0 HF1, 12.1.0 HF1, 12.0.0 HF2, 12.1.0 HF2, 12.0.0 HF3, 12.0.0 HF4, 12.1.1 HF1, 12.1.1 HF2, 12.1.2 HF1, 12.1.2 HF2, 12.1.0, 12.1.1, 12.1.2, 12.1.3, 12.1.3.1, 12.1.3.2, 12.1.3.3, 12.1.3.4, 12.1.3.5, 12.1.3.6, 12.1.3.7, 12.1.4, 12.1.4.1, 12.1.5, 12.1.5.1, 12.1.5.2, 12.1.5.3, 12.1.6, 13.0.0, 13.0.0 HF1, 13.0.0 HF2, 13.0.0 HF3, 13.0.1, 13.1.0, 13.1.0.1, 13.1.0.2, 13.1.0.3
Fixed In:
14.0.0, 13.1.0.4
Opened: Jul 30, 2015 Severity: 3-Major
The following log messages are shown in /var/log/secure, when remote-auth (APM based) is configured and when trying to authenticate local users: -- notice httpd[8281]: pam_apm: module returning Failure, ClientHandler auth failed!(admin) -- notice httpd[8281]: 01070417:5: AUDIT - user admin - RAW: httpd(mod_auth_pam): user=admin(admin) partition=[All] level=Administrator tty=/sbin/nologin host=X.X.X.X attempts=1 start="Wed Jan 17 14:49:21 2018" This failure log shows that the system first attempts to authenticate local users (like admin, root, etc.) remotely.
Local users credentials are sent to remote authentication servers which will return auth failure. However, in the second attempt, the system attempts to authenticate a user locally, and it will succeed, as expected. Check below logs: -- notice httpd[8281]: pam_apm: module returning Failure, ClientHandler auth failed!(admin) -- notice httpd[8281]: 01070417:5: AUDIT - user admin - RAW: httpd(mod_auth_pam): user=admin(admin) partition=[All] level=Administrator tty=/sbin/nologin host=X.X.X.X attempts=1 start="Wed Jan 17 14:49:21 2018"
This occurs when following conditions are met: - APM is provisioned on a BIG-IP system. - APM-based remote-auth is configured. - Local users (like admin, root, etc.) attempt to log into the management interface of that BIG-IP system.
None.
Local users are authenticated locally. The system no longer sends request to remote servers for local users.