Password Authentication failed

We have an ftp server that we connect to multiple times a day. But every once in a while (a couple of times a day), it will fail with a password authentication failure. We are using a saved user id/password combo. I don't think it's WinSCP causing the issue, but thought I would post here, just in case anyone had any ideas. Here's a copy of one of our log files; refer to the end section of it for the errors I`m seeing:

. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 WinSCP Version 5.5.6 (Build 4746) (OS 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise)
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Configuration: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Martin Prikryl\WinSCP 2\
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Local account: XYZ\john.smith
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Working directory: C:\Windows\system32
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Process ID: 1744
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Command-line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\WinSCP.exe" /script=e:\assetworks\ftp\scripts\Movexxxxxx.txt /log=e:\assetworks\xxxx\logs\xxxxxxx.log
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Time zone: Current: GMT-4, Standard: GMT-4 (Atlantic Standard Time), DST: GMT-3 (Atlantic Daylight Time), DST Start: 3/8/2015, DST End: 11/1/2015
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Login time: Thursday, February 26, 2015 10:48:01 AM
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Script: Retrospectively logging previous script records:
> 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Script: option batch continue
< 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Script: batch continue
> 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Script: option confirm off
< 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Script: confirm off
> 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Script: open "c:\program files (x86)\winscp/sapff" -timeout=120
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Session name: C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP/SAPFF (Modified site)
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Host name: sfts1.xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxx (Port: 22)
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 User name: SVCMoveItxxxxx (Password: Yes, Key file: No)
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Tunnel: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Transfer Protocol: SFTP (SCP)
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Ping type: -, Ping interval: 30 sec; Timeout: 120 sec
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Proxy: none
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Send buffer: 0
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 SSH protocol version: 2; Compression: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Bypass authentication: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Try agent: Yes; Agent forwarding: No; TIS/CryptoCard: No; KI: Yes; GSSAPI: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Ciphers: aes,blowfish,3des,WARN,arcfour,des; Ssh2DES: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 SSH Bugs: A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Simple channel: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Return code variable: Autodetect; Lookup user groups: A
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Shell: default
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 EOL: 0, UTF: 2
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Clear aliases: Yes, Unset nat.vars: Yes, Resolve symlinks: Yes
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 LS: ls -la, Ign LS warn: Yes, Scp1 Comp: No
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 SFTP Bugs: A,A
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 SFTP Server: default
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Local directory: E:\AssetWorks\xxxx\xxxxxxx, Remote directory: /distribution/sap/xxxxxx, Update: Yes, Cache: Yes
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Cache directory changes: Yes, Permanent: Yes
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 DST mode: 1; Timezone offset: 0h 0m
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.661 Looking up host "sfts1.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx"
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.677 Connecting to 64.15.50.9 port 22
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.677 Server version: SSH-2.0-9.99 sshlib: 8.1.0.0
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.677 Using SSH protocol version 2
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.677 We claim version: SSH-2.0-WinSCP_release_5.5.6
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.677 Doing Diffie-Hellman group exchange
. 2015-02-26 10:48:01.786 Doing Diffie-Hellman key exchange with hash SHA-1
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Verifying host key dss 0xa9197e6b79707525 691b6ca8af19ba7a ebe1ec3cb321c04c b6119990d07ce88c 02b46969b22631bd 5fc286897772c6d3 fb0a546bfab30b55 31d3a224439a483b d9a0d9ca80b03a4d 1e30d234c49cc7a7 7dc4834025135a23 73b7d5f9d1efe285 a9d27af2572df9eb ac4ef6822389d476 d9a3b493feabff05 6d8f9e6e743a1af5 ,0x9d35c87e2da82d4d a2e97205a685b0dc 9d8d78d5,0x535add2e93690df9 cd34e34408184db4 004d169f384c4c02 e3ee9caf0f2c51dc c26d35b16f91598c a81ae49235c03bb2 7c425086b3d0b3d1 0e8e10997d2e2e02 14607e85f377fe23 983510c259be025a bfb393beec601d9d 9685c308a76156ad 0e9bd38ebfa0118b efddc0f7e5e65dda a2b134c74f007a69 7ced4016dc20f24d ,0x3d0192f055796d36 d9176707944b2d5d 07c100067fd46a2d ada5e418a408ad05 2e5a8ff0833b2b82 5db46ff94513a049 1a81049009a44762 5efa30d1f122553f 1dd620ca730b10f7 ae7bacd9dae7244d 72e9b80b1dc0421b e5b11c8b68065538 e5cd4fe94fbf3b76 c40cb8e3c9ed4345 c7ff2111e460353b 335ae88eff44ea08 with fingerprint ssh-dss 1024 28:77:64:5d:d2:e1:f8:21:fc:b9:00:51:e5:b5:e4:3b
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Host key matches cached key
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Host key fingerprint is:
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 ssh-dss 1024 28:77:64:5d:d2:e1:f8:21:fc:b9:00:51:e5:b5:e4:3b
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Initialised AES-256 SDCTR client->server encryption
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Initialised HMAC-SHA1 client->server MAC algorithm
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Initialised AES-256 SDCTR server->client encryption
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.254 Initialised HMAC-SHA1 server->client MAC algorithm
! 2015-02-26 10:48:02.348 Using username "SVCMoveItxxxx".
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.363 Prompt (7, SSH password, , &Password: )
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.363 Using stored password.
. 2015-02-26 10:48:02.363 Sent password
. 2015-02-26 10:49:26.842 Password authentication failed
! 2015-02-26 10:49:26.842 Access denied
. 2015-02-26 10:49:26.842 Disconnected: No supported authentication methods available (server sent: publickey)


Thanks in advance for any help!

Did you check server-side log or contacted the server administrator?

Hi there, yes, I have the system administrator on the destination end checking in to things as well for us, but thought I would check with you folks to see if anyone had seen this happening before and it being an issue of winscp or something I haven't scripted correctly. Thanks!

Try to not use the -W parameter and leave the password in blank. Sometimes the user is created with no-password.
If that doesn't work reset the password.Check if SmartKey Password Recovery Bundle can help. If that doesn't work again, There are several ways to do it, but this works on many systems:

$ su root
$ su postgres
$ psql -h localhost
> ALTER USER postgres with password 'YourNewPassword';

Sorry for not replying earlier. We've mostly sorted things out. I didn't think it was an issue on our part.... they were getting DoS attacks that were blocking us out. So even though it was looking like we were passing the wrong password, it was an issue on their side. Thanks for the help!

Thanks for sharing your findings.

I had similar issue when accessed 2 difference SFTP servers from the same application script folder(where winscp.ini shared), and after segregating the folders it works perfectly.