>

Reset failed-login lockouts with faillock

Clear the faillock tally when a valid password no longer works after too many typos.

LinuxpasswordsaccountssecurityMedium risk
Run sudo faillock --user alice --reset to clear the failed-attempt counter and let the user log in again immediately.

01Command

Command
$ sudo faillock --user alice --reset

02What it does

Modern distros ship pam_faillock, which denies logins for a while (commonly 10–15 minutes) after a number of wrong passwords — even the correct one. faillock without arguments lists all users currently carrying a failure tally; --user NAME shows that account's records, and --reset zeroes them so authentication works again. This covers console, SSH and display-manager logins alike, because the PAM stack enforces it everywhere.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
Requirementspam_faillock (Linux PAM) — default on RHEL/Rocky/Fedora and recent Debian/Ubuntu. Root access required.
!Warning: Resetting a tally defeats a lockout you may want while under an active password-guessing attack — investigate the source first (journalctl -u sshd or lastb). Note the lockout is time-based too, so without --reset the account typically unlocks itself after the configured deny interval.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • faillock(8) — Arch Manual Pages
    Arch Linux · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Same options documented: --user to select the account and --reset to clear the tally of authentication failures.
  • faillock(8) - Ubuntu manpage
    Ubuntu Manpages · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: SYNOPSIS faillock [--user USERNAME] [--reset] — the utility inspects and resets the authentication failure records of a user.

Last verified: 2026-09-19 · Category: Security & Privacy

06Related solutions

Create an SSH key pair with ssh-keygen (Ed25519)
LinuxTerminaldevelopersecurity

Generate a modern Ed25519 public/private key pair in ~/.ssh for authenticating to servers and Git platforms without passwords.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17
Change file permissions with chmod
LinuxFilesTerminalsecurity

Add or remove read, write, and execute permission for the owner, group, or others using symbolic or octal modes.

Medium risk ✓ 2026-09-17
Allow a port through the firewall with ufw
Linuxnetworksecurity

Add a UFW rule to permit inbound traffic on a TCP or UDP port, such as SSH on port 22.

High risk ✓ 2026-09-17