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[SOLVED] sshd[11668]: error: PAM: Authentication failure for illegal user ROOT from dsl78-143-214-193.in-addr.fast.co.uk

Error added: 2011-10-06T14:40:21Z

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Answer 1879 (0.0% helpful)

"illegal user" means "invalid user" it looks like they capitalized "root" on the login. See also:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=349749

For example I was able to recreate this error by just using "root" all caps:

/var/log/secure: Oct 14 13:28:19 localhost sshd[9196]: Failed password for invalid user ROOT from 127.0.0.1 port 53203 ssh2

Note that mine says "invalid user" but the message is the same, just different wording.
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