access denied: tty ‘tty1’ is not secure

On a CentOS 7 server, when login as user root on the console, login fails. If I log in as a normal user, then I am able to switch to user root with the command “su – root”.

On checking /var/log/secure, I found the following error.

Nov 10 03:44:42 localhost login: pam_securetty(login:auth): access denied: tty 'tty1' is not secure !
Nov 10 03:44:45 localhost login: pam_succeed_if(login:auth): requirement "uid >= 1000" not met by user "root"
Nov 10 03:44:47 localhost login: FAILED LOGIN 1 FROM tty1 FOR root, Authentication failure

To fix the error, edit the file

vi /etc/securetty

In the file, add

tty1

On CentOS 7 server, the contents of the file are

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/securetty 
console
vc/1
vc/2
vc/3
vc/4
vc/5
vc/6
vc/7
vc/8
vc/9
vc/10
vc/11
tty1
tty2
tty3
tty4
tty5
tty6
tty7
tty8
tty9
tty10
tty11
ttyS0
ttysclp0
sclp_line0
3270/tty1
hvc0
hvc1
hvc2
hvc3
hvc4
hvc5
hvc6
hvc7
hvsi0
hvsi1
hvsi2
xvc0
[root@localhost ~]# 

Permission for the file is 600, in case you have the wrong permission, change it with

chmod 600 /etc/securetty

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