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When logging into Webmin from my remote laptop browser I entered my password into the "User" text box by accident. In the past, if I ever enter a password in cleartext anywhere, I create a new password. I don't want to do that if I can help it...

I just assembled and setup a server running UbuntuServer 12.04. I'm the only root user. I haven't even added other users, but plan to do so in the near future for guest access.

I looked inside /var/log/auth.log and can see:

Dec 13 17:09:07 glados webmin[4765]: Invalid login as from 12.34.56.78

Dec 13 17:09:11 glados perl[4766]: pam_unix(webmin:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=10000 ruser= rhost=12.34.56.78 user=root

Dec 13 17:09:13 glados webmin[4766]: Invalid login as root from 12.34.56.78

Dec 13 17:09:17 glados perl[4775]: pam_unix(webmin:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=10000 ruser= rhost=12.34.56.78 user=root

The bolded text above doesn't show the login name, if I am interpreting this log file correctly. I included another failed login attempt (17:09:13) which shows that root tried logging in. Is there another location that would contain more logs?

This is my first time setting up a server, I'd appreciate any help. Thank you.

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Edit:

I played around with the login system... I tried logging in as non-existent user "shirley" and the log showed a failed attempt by "shirley". Is the program smart enough to not log the password as a username? I ran cat auth.log | grep part_of_my_password and couldn't find anything. I'm thinking I'm clear... unless there is another logging location.

2 Answers 2

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If you have apache2 running on the system, check /var/log/apache2/access.log ? I usually get ping records from that log and it was beneficial for me.

People would would "generally" able to access your host would be port :80 :443 :21 :20 :22, I believe. So, check your http engine log (like apache2); ftp access log; and syslog/ssh. Maybe that direction would give you more insight in find out about unauthorized attempts.

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  • I am still in the process of setting everything up (studying for finals is elongating the process) so I do not have apache running yet. All I've done is partition drives, add webmin, and I'm transferring media files over. Your answer led me to research more on logging locations.. and I now know that most logs are stored inside /var/log. Eventually, I want to browse each log file to further my understanding. *** Now, I'm still wondering if Webmin is smart enough not to log the current PASSWORD if it is submitted inside the USERNAME field by accident. Thank you.
    – gpops
    Dec 16, 2013 at 0:44
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    Webmin does not run under Apache (unless Apache is proxying requests for Webmin, which is a very uncommon configuration and unlikely to be the case here), and accesses to Webmin do not show up in the Apache log. Webmin web server and action and error logs live in /var/webmin on most systems.
    – swelljoe
    Mar 7, 2015 at 8:42
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If you install Webmin, and still have Ubuntu root password disabled, you won't be able to log in to the Webmin webpage, as the Webmin root login will be disabled too. To fix this, you need to manually change the Webmin root password.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WebminWithoutARootAccount

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