SSH-Key authentication fails
I'm trying to ssh into a CentOS server which I have no control over.. the admin has added my public key to the server and insists the fault lies with me but I can't figure out what is wrong.
Config in .ssh:
tim@tim-UX31A:~$ cat ~/.ssh/config
User root
PasswordAuthentication no
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Permission on my key-files:
tim@tim-UX31A:~$ ls -l ~/.ssh/id_rsa*
-rw------- 1 tim tim 3326 Okt 20 17:28 /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 tim tim 746 Okt 20 17:28 /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Connection log which I can't make any sense of:
tim@tim-UX31A:~$ ssh -vvv [email protected]
OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.1, OpenSSL 1.0.2g 1 Mar 2016
debug1: Reading configuration data /home/tim/.ssh/config
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug2: resolving "10.0.12.28" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to 10.0.12.28 [10.0.12.28] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6.1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug1: Authenticating to 10.0.12.28:22 as 'root'
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/home/tim/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type ECDSA in file /home/tim/.ssh/known_hosts:3
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from 10.0.12.28
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
debug3: send packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug3: receive packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: local client KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: [email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,ext-info-c
debug2: host key algorithms: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,[email protected],[email protected],ssh-ed25519,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
debug2: ciphers ctos: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,3des-cbc
debug2: ciphers stoc: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,3des-cbc
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: compression ctos: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: compression stoc: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug2: peer server KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: [email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: host key algorithms: ssh-rsa,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
debug2: ciphers ctos: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: ciphers stoc: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: compression ctos: none,[email protected]
debug2: compression stoc: none,[email protected]
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug1: kex: algorithm: [email protected]
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug3: send packet: type 30
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug3: receive packet: type 31
debug1: Server host key:
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/home/tim/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type ECDSA in file /home/tim/.ssh/known_hosts:3
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from 10.0.12.28
debug1: Host '10.0.12.28' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/tim/.ssh/known_hosts:3
debug3: send packet: type 21
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug3: receive packet: type 21
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug2: key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa (0x55ee619ab2b0), explicit, agent
debug2: key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa (0x55ee619bcfa0), agent
debug2: key: tim@Tim-UX31A-Debian (0x55ee619b9370), agent
debug3: send packet: type 5
debug3: receive packet: type 6
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug3: preferred gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug3: authmethod_lookup gssapi-keyex
debug3: remaining preferred: gssapi-with-mic,publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled gssapi-keyex
debug1: Next authentication method: gssapi-keyex
debug1: No valid Key exchange context
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup gssapi-with-mic
debug3: remaining preferred: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled gssapi-with-mic
debug1: Next authentication method: gssapi-with-mic
debug1: Unspecified GSS failure. Minor code may provide more information
No Kerberos credentials available
debug1: Unspecified GSS failure. Minor code may provide more information
No Kerberos credentials available
debug1: Unspecified GSS failure. Minor code may provide more information
debug1: Unspecified GSS failure. Minor code may provide more information
No Kerberos credentials available
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup publickey
debug3: remaining preferred: keyboard-interactive
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa
debug3: send_pubkey_test
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa
debug3: send_pubkey_test
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug1: Offering RSA public key: tim@Tim-UX31A-Debian
debug3: send_pubkey_test
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password).
This will usually resolve most SSH authorized key permission issues on the server side, assuming someone didn't make additional changes to the permissions.
username=example # remote username
sudo chown $username:$username /home/$username/{.,.ssh/,.ssh/authorized_keys}
sudo chmod o-rwX /home/$username/{.ssh/,.ssh/authorized_keys}
If your admin created the .ssh/ directory or .ssh/authorized_keys file as root (which is most commonly how this becomes broken), then having the file owned by another user (even if root!) isn't allowed.
I had the exact same problem on two servers: a Linux running Debian stretch and on a NAS (Synology DS715)
it turned out that in both cases, the home directory permissions on the server were wrong
the auth.log on the server was very helpful
Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for directory /home/cyril
on the Linux, it had the write/group bit on (drwxrwxr--x), so I had to remove at least the write on group (chmod g-w ~/) and then it worked
on the Synology, for whatever reason, there was a sticky bit
drwx--x--x+ 4 toto users 4096 Jan 6 12:11 /var/services/homes/toto
I had to change it with
chmod -t ~/
and I could then connect without a password
When using CentOS 7, and I'm confident applies to other Linux OS's using sshd as well. With root access, you can determine more about why authentication may be failing. To do this:
- Enable logging for the
sshddaemon:sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config - Under logging uncomment:
SyslogFacility AUTH LogLevel INFO
- Change
LogLevelfromINFOtoDEBUG - Save and exit
- Restart the SSH daemon with
sudo systemctl restart sshd - Watch the messages file
tail -l /var/log/messages - Using another terminal, attempt to connect with ssh
- Attempt to connect with
ssh - Review the authentication log for the exact cause
For example, I was experiencing some of the same problems as mentioned above.
Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for file /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys
Using these steps I was able to confirm the problem was permissions on the authorized_keys file. By setting chmod 644 on the authorized_keys file of my user, the problem was fixed.
It looks like the permissions on your .ssh folder didn't copy+paste correctly. Could you please add it again?
If strict mode is enabled then we have to make sure .ssh has the correct permissions of:
-
.ssh/should have perms0700/rwx------ -
.ssh/*.pubfiles should be644/rw-r--r-- -
.ssh/*(other files in .ssh)0600/rw-------
How do things look for you permission-wise?
I've had a similar problem, where the ssh connection tries key ~/.ssh/id_rsa before unexpectedly stopping on:
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
In my case, it was due to an old public key file lying around in the .ssh directory:
[gitlab-runner@validation-k8s-1 ~]$ ll .ssh/id_rsa*
total 16
-rw------- 1 gitlab-runner gitlab-runner 1675 Sep 18 18:02 id_rsa --> new private key
-rw-r--r--. 1 gitlab-runner gitlab-runner 423 Jun 12 13:51 id_rsa.pub --> old public key
Moving/deleting the id_rsa.pub from the .ssh directory solved the problem.
From what I understand: when there is a public key present on the client-side, SSH 1st validates the private key against it. If it fails, it won't try to use the private key to connect remotely.
I sent an e-mail to the openssh mailing list: https://lists.mindrot.org/pipermail/openssh-unix-dev/2016-April/035048.html.