Strange SFTP and PAM failure

[Jaime Kikpole]

I think I have an answer, but I don't know if it is a good idea or not.

When I asked, they eventually told me they're using Java 1.8 Update
51.  After weeks of wasted time, they escalated it to engineering.
(And I do mean "wasted."  It took three days for them to "pull the
logs" (their words) so that someone could review them.  Not 3 days to
review them.  Just to "pull the logs.")

Meanwhile, I've been tinkering and trying until I found that changing
"PasswordAuthentication" in /etc/sshd_config from the default of "no"
to "yes" will allow the PowerSchool system to make an SFTP connection
and successfully push the text file over the link.

So my question now becomes:  Is this a good idea?

The man page seems to say that I should set
ChallengeResponseAuthentication to "no" if PasswordAuthentication is
set to "yes".  Should I make that change?  Should I just disable PAM
within sshd?

I also freely admit that I don't have a deep understanding of PAM and
usually leave it on the default settings.  Perhaps I just have a silly
setting in PAM.

Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

-- 
Jaime Kikpole
Network Administrator
Cairo-Durham Central School District

Technical Support:
help at cairodurham.org
go.cairodurham.org/techtips

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