SSH and PAM authentication issues on Solaris 10

This is a zone running Solaris 10u8 on a 6320 blade. The global zone is also running 10u8.

One my users is attempting to change his password and getting a following screen:

$ ssh remotesys
Password:
Warning: Your password has expired, please change it now.

New Password:
Re-enter new Password:
sshd-kbdint: Unexpected failure. Password database unchanged.

Password:

and when I check /var/adm/messages, I see this:

Mar  7 15:06:28 remotesys sshd[26575]: [ID 800047 auth.info] Keyboard-interactive (PAM) userauth failed[4] while changing authentication tokens (password): System error
Mar  7 15:06:28 remotesys sshd[26575]: [ID 800047 auth.notice] Failed keyboard-interactive for user1 from nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn port 47644 ssh2

Checking the system, there appears to be no unusual issues (disk space, cpu, etc) - all files are in place with the proper permissions.

Any suggestions for help are greatly appreciated.

You might throw a truss on the daemon so you can see what system error occurs.