I have followed instructions on redhat on how to harden authentication on a linux server, but we only use SSH with public key auth. According to these instructions:
<https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/security_guide/chap-hardening_your_system_with_tools_and_services>

Here is my /etc/pam.d/system-auth and /etc/pam.d/password-auth files, they are both the same actually:

```
#%PAM-1.0
# This file is auto-generated.
# User changes will be destroyed the next time authconfig is run.
auth        required      pam_env.so
auth        required      pam_faildelay.so delay=2000000
auth        required      pam_faillock.so preauth silent audit deny=3 even_deny_root unlock_time=60
auth        sufficient    pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth        [default=die] pam_faillock.so authfail audit deny=3 even_deny_root unlock_time=60
auth        requisite     pam_succeed_if.so uid >= 1000 quiet_success
auth        required      pam_deny.so

account     required      pam_faillock.so
account     required      pam_unix.so
account     sufficient    pam_localuser.so
account     sufficient    pam_succeed_if.so uid < 1000 quiet
account     required      pam_permit.so

password    requisite     pam_pwquality.so try_first_pass local_users_only retry=3 authtok_type=
password    sufficient    pam_unix.so sha512 shadow nullok try_first_pass use_authtok
password    required      pam_deny.so

session     optional      pam_keyinit.so revoke
session     required      pam_limits.so
-session     optional      pam_systemd.so
session     [success=1 default=ignore] pam_succeed_if.so service in crond quiet use_uid
session     required      pam_unix.so

```

With this config, I was hoping to achieve some kind of lockout message if user tries to authenticate with the wrong key after 3 tries for example. But no message about lockout pops up, and I have no way to tell if lockout policy is working or not. There is also the pam\_tally2 module, but I don't see what difference it would make vs the pam\_faillock module.

The logs show nothing except that root permission denied:

```
[some_user@ip-10-10-2-53 ~]$ cat /var/run/faillock/some_user
[some_user@ip-10-10-2-53 ~]$ cat /var/run/faillock/root 
cat: /var/run/faillock/root: Permission denied

```

And I have tried to use the wrong key to ssh for `some_user`, and it does not seem to lock me out because I don't see anything in the faillock logs or any ssh message from where I try to ssh.