@ERROR: auth failed on module ... / password mismatch

[Matthew Wild]

We have an odd situation where we have an rsyncd server running, that
generates a password mismatch error when access attempts are made from
some hosts, but not others.

rsync from host1 is as follows

rsync -vv user at server::STEREO
opening tcp connection to server port 873
opening connection using --server --sender -vv --list-only . STEREO
Password:
@ERROR: auth failed on module STEREO
rsync error: error starting client-server protocol (code 5) at
main.c(1171)

and on host2

rsync -vv user at server::STEREO/
opening tcp connection to server port 873
Password:
drwxr-xr-x        4096 2008/10/29 14:13:41 .
-rw-r--r--       19942 2008/10/23 10:26:19 wget-log
-rw-r--r--     1561285 2008/10/28 15:13:44 wget-log.1
-rw-r--r--      325553 2008/10/29 14:31:51 wget-log.10
-rw-r--r--      390484 2008/10/29 14:36:23 wget-log.11
-rw-r--r--      240940 2008/10/29 14:27:40 wget-log.12
-rw-r--r--     2276026 2008/10/28 16:52:36 wget-log.2
-rw-r--r--       18620 2008/10/28 13:49:02 wget-log.3
-rw-r--r--    10851300 2008/10/28 22:08:16 wget-log.4
-rw-r--r--     1395844 2008/10/29 03:09:36 wget-log.5
-rw-r--r--    12329470 2008/10/29 11:03:54 wget-log.6
-rw-r--r--     2522306 2008/10/29 04:02:25 wget-log.7
-rw-r--r--      934565 2008/10/29 02:40:20 wget-log.8
-rw-r--r--     1364752 2008/10/29 02:50:01 wget-log.9
delta transmission enabled

sent 102 bytes  received 544 bytes  184.57 bytes/sec
total size is 208957904  speedup is 323464.25


where the servers rysnd.log shows

2008/10/29 17:05:31 [21581] connect from host1 (*.*.*.*)
2008/10/29 17:05:36 [21581] auth failed on module STEREO from host1
(*.*.*.*): password mismatch
2008/10/29 17:07:23 [21604] connect from host2 (*.*.*.*)
2008/10/29 17:07:27 [21604] rsync on STEREO/ from user at host2 (*.*.*.*)
2008/10/29 17:07:27 [21604] sent 544 bytes  received 102 bytes  total
size 208957904

where host1 is a Solaris box running rsync version

rsync  version 2.6.6  protocol version 29
Copyright (C) 1996-2005 by Andrew Tridgell and others
<http://rsync.samba.org/>
Capabilities: 64-bit files, socketpairs, hard links, symlinks,
batchfiles,
              inplace, no IPv6, 64-bit system inums, 64-bit internal
inums

and host2 is a Linux box running rsync

rsync  version 2.6.3  protocol version 28
Copyright (C) 1996-2004 by Andrew Tridgell and others
<http://rsync.samba.org/>
Capabilities: 64-bit files, socketpairs, hard links, acls, symlinks,
batchfiles,
              inplace, IPv6, 64-bit system inums, 64-bit internal inums,
SLP


Can anyone shed some light on this behaviour?

Regards

Matthew
-- 
Matthew Wild <m.wild at rl.ac.uk>
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, STFC