---
name: "faillock"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "pam"
version: "1.7.3-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/faillock"
---

# faillock(8)

Tool for displaying and modifying the authentication failure record files

## NAME

faillock - Tool for displaying and modifying the authentication failure record files

## SYNOPSIS

**faillock** \[--dir */path/to/tally-directory*\] \[--user *username*\] \[--reset\]

## DESCRIPTION

The *pam\_faillock.so* module maintains a list of failed authentication attempts per user during a specified interval and locks the account in case there were more than *deny* consecutive failed authentications. It stores the failure records into per-user files in the tally directory.

The **faillock** command is an application which can be used to examine and modify the contents of the tally files. It can display the recent failed authentication attempts of the *username* or clear the tally files of all or individual *usernames*.

## OPTIONS

- \--conf /path/to/config-file

  The file where the configuration is located. The default is /etc/security/faillock.conf.

- \--dir /path/to/tally-directory

  The directory where the user files with the failure records are kept.

  The priority to set this option is to use the value provided from the command line. If this isn't provided, then the value from the configuration file is used. Finally, if neither of them has been provided, then /var/run/faillock is used.

- \--user username

  The user whose failure records should be displayed or cleared.

- \--reset

  Instead of displaying the user's failure records, clear them.

## FILES

/var/run/faillock/\*

the files logging the authentication failures for users

## SEE ALSO

[**pam\_faillock**(8)](/pam_faillock/8.md), [**pam**(8)](/pam/8.md)

## AUTHOR

faillock was written by Tomas Mraz.