No password is accepted

[willo]

I have several users on a Mac running Sequoia 15.4.1. NoMachine free 8.16.1 is set running on the device.

No remote (Mac Sequoia 15.3.2) users can login. Error on client side is bad password. It’s not a bad password.

Problem occurs with both physical and virtual displays

Logs attached.

Attachments:

1. NoMachine-log-2025.04.18-10.29.05.zip

[Britgirl]

Hi, logs show an authentication problem related to PAM, which we’ve not encountered on macOS 15.4. But, we noticed you’re using the macOS just released (15.4.1) which we are currently testing and we’ll try and reproduce. In the meantime, please enable debug as per the instructions here https://kb.nomachine.com/DT07S00243 from the macOS server-side, reproduce the error and submit to us here or via email to forum[at]nomachine[dot]com. Please use the title of this topic as the subject of your email. Thanks.

[Britgirl]

Additionally, please open a terminal on the macOS server host and provide the output of:

i) /usr/bin/install -g wheel -m 644 -o root '/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/scripts/etc/pam.d/nx' '/etc/pam.d/'

ii) ls -l /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/scripts/etc/pam.d/nx

iii) ls -ld /etc/pam.d

[willo]

3rdguy@InOffictMacMini ~ % /usr/bin/install -g wheel -m 644 -o root '/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/scripts/etc/pam.d/nx' '/etc/pam.d/'

install: /etc/pam.d/INS@Dt7ciA: Permission denied

3rdguy@InOffictMacMini ~ % sudo /usr/bin/install -g wheel -m 644 -o root '/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/scripts/etc/pam.d/nx' '/etc/pam.d/'

3rdguy@InOffictMacMini ~ % sudo ls -l /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/scripts/etc/pam.d/nx

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  289 Nov 15  2021 /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/scripts/etc/pam.d/nx

3rdguy@InOffictMacMini ~ % sudo ls -ld /etc/pam.d

drwxr-xr-x  28 root  wheel  896 Apr 18 14:40 /etc/pam.d

3rdguy@InOffictMacMini ~ % 

Attachments:

1. NoMachine-log-2025.04.18-14.38.00.zip

[Britgirl]

I should have been more specific, apologies for that. Run those commands again as root in a terminal.

[willo]

The commands were sudo’d in. do I need to go all the way to root?

(you can see where I pasted them in, got permission denied, the sudo’d before the command)

Output remains the same with sudo.

[Guro]

Hello

Please provide results of the following:

1. ls -la /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxexec

to be sure that nxexec had suid flag.

2. /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxexec --auth

it will ask for user password input and allows to check if nxexec interacts correctly with PAM service.

Use local user credentials and network user too if you have.

 

[willo]

xxxx@xxxx-MacBook-Pro bin % ls -la /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxexec

-r-sr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  371808 Jan 24 15:26 /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxexec

SUID flag seems set

xxxx@xxxx-MacBook-Pro bin % sudo /Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxexec --auth

Password:

Username:xxxx

User authorized, is member of: staff,everyone,localaccounts,_appserverusr,admin,_appserveradm,_lpadmin,com.apple.sharepoint.group.1,_appstore,_lpoperator,_developer,_analyticsusers,com.apple.access_ftp,com.apple.access_screensharing,com.apple.access_ssh,com.apple.access_remote_ae.Full name: xxxx.

[zaq]

Hello Willo,

We need more details. We prepared a debug installation package (link to download sent via email)

1) could you uninstall NoMachine:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/NoMachine.app

2) remove leftovers:

sudo rm /etc/pam.d/nx /etc/pam.d/nxlimits

3) install the debug package.

4) collect logs and send like before.

[Author]

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