topic Re: Administrator account issue in General Topics

Administrator account issue

kwaid — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:07:18 GMT

PA-5050 device with software version 4.1.6.

In all my devices except one, I was able to create a new Administrator account (Superuser) with password and log on with the account to administer the device. The problem device allows me to create a new account like the others, but I get an "Invalid Username or password" error when I attempt to log on with it

Name: Test

Authentication Profile: None

Password: ***************

Confirm Password: ***************

Role: Dynamic

Superuser

I have attached authdlog output. The only problem I see with the Test account login is the attempt to authenticate the user against the shared authentication profile instead of as a local account, as an Administrator account should be. Removing the authentication profiles or changing the sequence in setup does not solve the problem.

Is there a configuration change which defaults all device administrator account authentication to the local account?

Re: Administrator account issue

ggoudr — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:00:57 GMT

Did you try to set the authentication profile of the user to "None" ?

Then you need to commit in order for the changes to take effect.

Because as I can see in the log you have attached, the "test" administrator tried to authenticate using a defined authentication sequence.

Try to set the option "None" instead of the authentication sequence...

Also, be aware - and this is very important - that the usernames are case sensitive. In the logs I can see user 'test' but not user 'Test' as you have mentioned you created...

Regards,

George

Re: Administrator account issue

kwaid — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:15:34 GMT

George,

User profile was set to None on account creation, password word entered correctly on both instances, the Role set as Dynamic (Superuser) and a Commit was accomplilshed successfully, verified by log.

A new device Administrator account should authenticate locally, as the default admin account does, not the profile made for user logon. All 14 of my other devices worked fine and the configurations are the same for all of them, but this one device simply insists on attempting to authenticate using a profile instead of as a local device account. Case sensitivity is not the issue.

Any other ideas welcomed...

Ken

Re: Administrator account issue

zarina — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:16:48 GMT

As ggoudr pointed out, the usernames are case sensitive. The authd logs indicate you are trying to login with the username 'test'. Please try logging in with the username 'Test'

Re: Administrator account issue

kwaid — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:37:40 GMT

It is not a case sensitive issue as all accounts are made using lower case letters only.

Re: Administrator account issue

mbutt — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:48:13 GMT

Hi,

In the authd logs please verify the following

Do you see a line "test admin is being authed using local acct":

or you just see "test admin is being authed"

If it is the second line you see it is possible that the authentication process has been locked by a user. To get rid of this issue please do the following

1. Make sure to save the configuration locally.

2. Reinstall the software on the device.(basically the software which is already installed)

3. When software is re installed it will ask the device to be rebooted. Please reboot the device

4. Verify that you are able to configure the user.

Just restarting the system might not solve the issue.

Let us know if this helps

Thank you

mbutt

Re: Administrator account issue

Salathiwe — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:28:59 GMT

Good day

How did you get this resolved?

Re: Administrator account issue

kiwi — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:48:36 GMT

Hi @Salathiwe ,

Wow, a blast from the past! While the PA-5050 and PAN-OS 4.1 are quite old now, the 'Invalid Username/Password' issue for local admins usually boils down to a few persistent things regardless of the version:

The 'Commit' Step: On Palo Alto devices, a new local admin account doesn't actually exist until you successfully Commit the changes using another superuser account.
Case Sensitivity: Double-check if you created 'Admin' but are typing 'admin'.
Auth Profile: Ensure the admin's 'Authentication Profile' is explicitly set to None to force local password database usage.

If you're on a much newer version of PAN-OS, you might want to start a new thread with your specific model and software version so the community can give you updated advice!