Help Center/ Elastic Cloud Server/ Troubleshooting/ Remote Login/ Remote Login Errors on Linux/ What Do I Do If "Authentication failed" Is Reported When a Linux ECS Is Remotely Connected?
Updated on 2026-07-07 GMT+08:00

What Do I Do If "Authentication failed" Is Reported When a Linux ECS Is Remotely Connected?

Symptom

When a non-root account is used to remotely log in to a Linux server using SSH, the error message "Authentication failed" is displayed.

Your account has expired;please contact your system administrator.
Authentication failed.

Possible Causes

The user account has expired. Reset the password of the expired account or change the account expiration time.

Solution

Method 1:

  1. Log in to the Linux server as the root user.
  2. Run the following command to reset the password of the expired account:

    chage -l Expired account

Method 2:

Run the following command to change the account expiration time:

chage -E Expiration time Expired account