You (oracle) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

You (oracle) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

1. Check the cron process/service is running or not
# ps -ef | grep cron
root     10441     1  0 Apr16 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     17805 17148  0 13:00 pts/0    00:00:00 grep cron

# /etc/init.d/crond status
crond (pid  10441) is running...

2. Check the crontab for oracle user
# crontab -l -u oracle

Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required
You (oracle) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

Getting above error. check for logs
# less /var/log/cron
Jun 11 11:40:01 linuxtutor1 crond[20496]: (root) CMD (/usr/lib64/sa/sa1 1 1)
Jun 11 11:50:01 linuxtutor1 crond[31752]: (root) CMD (/usr/lib64/sa/sa1 1 1)
Jun 11 12:00:01 linuxtutor1 crond[11037]: Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required
Jun 11 12:00:01 linuxtutor1 crond[11037]: CRON (oracle) ERROR: failed to open PAM security session: Success
Jun 11 12:00:01 linuxtutor1 crond[11037]: CRON (oracle) ERROR: cannot set security context

# less /var/log/secure
Jun 11 13:02:04 linuxtutor1 crontab: pam_unix(crond:account): expired password for user oracle (password aged)
Jun 11 13:03:40 linuxtutor1 su: pam_unix(su-l:session): session opened for user oracle by root(uid=0)
Jun 11 13:03:49 linuxtutor1 crontab: pam_unix(crond:account): expired password for user oracle (password aged)
Jun 11 13:05:14 linuxtutor1 su: pam_unix(su-l:session): session closed for user oracle
Jun 11 13:11:46 linuxtutor1 chage[30384]: changed password expiry for oracle

User oracle account is expired on 10th june 2013
# chage -l oracle
Last password change                                    : May 13, 2013
Password expires                                        : Jun 10, 2014
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 7
Maximum number of days between password change          : 28
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

# date
Wed Jun 11 13:10:28 EDT 2013

Change oracle user's password to never expire
# chage -M 99999 -m 99999 oracle

Check the user's password age
# chage -l oracle
Last password change                                    : May 13, 2013
Password expires                                        : never
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 99999
Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

Check the oracle user's crontab entries. Now it is displaying the cron details.
# crontab -l -u oracle
0 * * * * /home/oracle/bin/check-db-status

Now the cron jobs are running fine without any issues.