[sf-lug] request for help re ssh -- sshd login failure

jim jim at well.com
Sun Feb 7 11:09:36 PST 2016


Many, many thanks, Michael.
My comments interspersed below.


On 02/07/2016 05:23 PM, Michael Paoli wrote:
> Divide & conquer troubleshooting,
> E.g. (I won't do or outline a whole flow chart or the like, I'll leave 
> that
> bit of logic flow as an exercise) ...
> JS: per wikipedia links at the bottom of your reply.
>
> If one does the test where the client is also on the same server host, 
> does it
> work?
> JS: great idea. I suppose I should try to login both to local host
> as well as the IP address.
> And likewise if the server is 127.0.0.1 or other localhost address?
> JS: I'm reading this meaning to use ifconfig to verify that  lo is
> 127.0.0.1
> Does password authentication on the server work, e.g. can user use su 
> from
> their login ID to their same login ID?
> JS: BEAUTIFUL! Thanks
> Can other (non-root) accounts be ssh(1)ed into?
> JS: We've already changed the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file to disallow
> root login via sshd. I guess we can make another user account
> and try that. I'm pessimistic. We've changed permissions
> 109 # chmod 777 /home ; chmod 777 /home/lerner
> with no good affect.
> What about options to ssh, notably -v, and using that option up to
> thrice as options on the ssh(1) command line?
> JS: never thought about learning ssh command options. I'll read
> and try.
> What about logs on the server, what do they say/suggest about
> the attempts and failures?
> JS:    119 $ ls -lt /var/log | head
> shows that kernel.log, syslog, and auth.log are most immediately
> updated. Using the  tail  command on each presents the most
> recent ten log lines, none of which is useful to me.
> If other accounts also work there, what does the log show on
> those, and how do they differ?
> JS: The auth.log file shows  sudo  command changes with no
> errors or warnings. (Oh, the  sshd_config file sets logging to INFO)
> Is one using or attempting to use password authentication, or is one
> attempting to authenticate using ssh keys?
> JS: We cleared out  109:~/.ssh/known_hosts  and then tried to
> use  ssh  to log in to 119;  109 sshd  presented the default
> message about untrusted host stuff and did we want to trust,
> to which we typed in  yes  (and presto, we got a new known_hosts
> file) and then we got a passwd: prompt at which we typed in the
> correct password and saw a  permission denied  return.
> If keys, do the public and private key properly correspond?  (I'll
> leave how to check that as an exercise - hint - read the man page
> for ssh-keygen(1)).
> JS: thanks for the reminder. We'll have to learn about using keys
> rather than passwords.
> What about the permissions on the public and private key files, and the
> permissions of all ancestor directories up the physical path to those
> files (sshd in particular is quite persnickety about those - and
> rightfully so).
> JS: All I know of is the  ~/.ssh/known_hosts  file. I'm guessing that
> the man page for  ssh-keygen  will provide clues.
> If ssh-agent is being use, what key(s) does it show as
> available to the client?
> JS: this is brand new turf for me. I'll read and try.
> Changed default sshd settings?  Uhm, did one verify any working access
> and authentication via sshd first, or has one just added more 
> variables to
> the situation?
> JS: In addition to the two directives I reported, we changed the
> permitrootlogin  directive from  yes  to  no
> And if one boots server from "live" CD/DVD or the like, sets up
> account to log into on that server, does that then work?
> JS: an obvious test that we did not try. Thanks.
> And what do
> the logs from that look like and how do they compare/differ?
> etc., etc.
> JS: we'll look.
> What information has one found regarding troubleshooting ssh access
> by, oh, gee, using The Internet, and, uhm, like a search engine?
> JS: We spent close to four hours just trying to solve the login problem,
> and we're now starting to reach for info. My original request was my
> attempt to define the problem and report context.
> JS: My experiences looking up problems using a search engine suggest
> that I should use error message text and log file text in the query 
> (along
> with "Linux" and "Ubuntu" and release information. The ten thousand
> found web pages are often opaque to me or offer clear solutions that
> do not work when I try them on my systems. I have not found a few
> sites that give me useful answers to my problem. I suppose that means
> my search queries are not sufficiently specific, but I'm still in the 
> dark.
> What results have been found from such research and investigation?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubleshooting#Half-splitting
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_conquer_algorithms
> JS: will read and try.
>
JS: more thanks.
>
>> From: jim <jim at well.com>
>> Subject: [sf-lug] request for help re ssh -- sshd login failure
>> Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2016 20:27:35 +0000
>
>> Problem : we cannot use ssh to log in on a newly installed
>> Ubuntu host.
>>
>>
>> * We have a linux machine on local network 192.168.1.119
>>   See specifics for this host ( 119 ) below.
>>
>> * We installed openssh-server.
>>
>> * Using an ssh client on a Ubuntu 12.04 host on the local
>>   network 192.168.1.109 we cannot log in to 119
>>
>> * After many attempts using the default ( yes ) settings, we
>>   changed the following directive values in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
>>   but with no difference in behavior or log messages.
>>
>>     X11Forwarding no     ## changed from  yes  to  no  20160205
>>     UsePAM  no          ## changed from  yes  to  no  20160206
>>
>>
>> 109 $ ssh lerner at 192.168.1.119
>> rsa ~/.ssh/known_hosts negotiation successful
>> passwd:
>> Permission denied, please try again.
>> ...
>> 109 $
>> ## see output of
>> 119 $ tail -2 /var/log/auth.log
>> ## at bottom of this file :
>>
>>     ## server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22
>>     ## server listening on :: port 22
>>     ## ?? does  ::  mean 192.168.1.119 ??
>>     ## ?? i.e. is sshd listing both on lo and eth0 ??
>>
>>
>>
>> -------stats for host on 192.168.1.119-------------
>>
>> ##------
>> 119 $ uname -a
>> Linux mailin 3.5.0-23-generic #35~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 25 
>> 17:15:33 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
>>
>>
>> ##------
>> 119 $ cat /etc/issue
>> Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS \n \l
>>
>>
>> ##------
>> 119 $ free
>>              total       used       free     shared    buffers cached
>> Mem:       4013004    1503756    2509248          0     226992 821120
>> -/+ buffers/cache:     455644    3557360
>> Swap:      2928628          0    2928628
>>
>>
>> ##------
>> 119 $ df -h
>> Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>> /dev/sda2        19G  4.6G   13G  26% /
>> udev            2.0G  4.0K  2.0G   1% /dev
>> tmpfs           784M  892K  783M   1% /run
>> none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
>> none            2.0G   76K  2.0G   1% /run/shm
>> /dev/sda6        37G  176M   35G   1% /var/mail
>> /dev/sda5       9.2G  163M  8.6G   2% /home
>> /dev/sdb1       3.8G  1.6G  2.2G  42% /media/KINGSTON
>>
>>
>> ##------
>> 119 $ sudo iptables -L
>> Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
>> target     prot opt source               destination
>>
>> Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
>> target     prot opt source               destination
>>
>> Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
>> target     prot opt source               destination
>>
>>
>> ##------
>> 119 $ tail -2 /var/log/auth.log
>> Feb  6 11:29:59 mailin sshd[8549]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
>> Feb  6 11:29:59 mailin sshd[8549]: Server listening on :: port 22.
>
>





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