5. Authentication Logging

Lesson Content

Authentication logging can be very useful to look at if you are having issues logging in.

/var/log/auth.log

This contains system authorization logs, such as user login and the authentication method used.

Sample snippet:

Jan 31 10:37:50 icebox pkexec: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root by (uid=1000)

Exercise

Do some failed logins and then a successful one, look at your /var/log/auth.log and see what happened.

Quiz Question

# What log is used for user authentication? > /var/log/auth. log – Contains system authorization information, including user logins and authentication machinsm that were used. 1. [ ] boot.log 2. [ ] sys.log 3. [ ] kern.log 4. [x] auth.log