A few days ago, I made a handling error on an Oracle Linux 7 virtual machine on a freshly configured Exadata X8M. I inadvertently renamed the files “/etc/pam.d/password-auth” and “/etc/pam.d/system-auth”. Result: I was no longer able to connect to the VM in ssh, or even via the virsh console.

I will describe here the steps to regain access by renaming the files with the right name, but it is also applicable if you have lost your root password.

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