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Server

SSH will always authenticate as root

cybin

11/10/23, 1:21 PM

# ssh -l admin 10.1.0.2
Warning: Permanently added '10.1.0.2' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
[email protected]'s password:

Using "OpenSSH_8.4p1 Debian-5+deb11u1, OpenSSL 1.1.1n" I want to connect to a remote host, but what ever I try, it always reverts the login to root. Configuration files has been renamed to ensure that no User option is being applied. The only hint I get is this line:

debug1: Authenticating to 10.1.0.2:22 as 'root'

-- EDIT --

To provide more information, here is a debug output up to the point where SSH decides to authenticate as root, though told not to do so.

xxxxxxx:~$ ssh -vvv -p4711 [email protected]
OpenSSH_8.4p1 Debian-5+deb11u1, OpenSSL 1.1.1n  15 Mar 2022
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: include /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/*.conf matched no files
debug2: resolve_canonicalize: hostname xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is address
debug3: expanded UserKnownHostsFile '~/.ssh/known_hosts' -> '/home/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts'
debug3: expanded UserKnownHostsFile '~/.ssh/known_hosts2' -> '/home/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts2'
debug2: ssh_connect_direct
debug1: Connecting to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] port 4711.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_xmss type -1
debug1: identity file /home/xxx/.ssh/id_xmss-cert type -1
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_8.4p1 Debian-5+deb11u1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_8.4p1 Debian-5
debug1: match: OpenSSH_8.4p1 Debian-5 pat OpenSSH* compat 0x04000000
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug1: Authenticating to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:4711 as 'root'
debug3: put_host_port: [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]:4711
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/home/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type ECDSA in file /home/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]:4711
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: have matching best-preference key type [email protected], using HostkeyAlgorithms verbatim

As you can see, there are no configuration file options applied. What puzzles me most is, that on a different host using the same ssh client version, it works. I still think that I'm missing something fundamental. Any ideas?

Thanks.

657

1 + 4

ssh

authentication

diya

11/10/23, 1:37 PM

That is indeed strange. Typically running the ssh client with `-v` and/or `-vv` debug flags will show which configuration files get applied and in what order, for example `debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config` `debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 58: Applying options for ...` and debug1: `Reading configuration data /Users/diya/.ssh/config` - Does that list any particulars?

cybin

11/10/23, 1:40 PM

No. I've renamed the files that has been applied to test this, but it didn't solve the problem.

Martin

11/11/23, 9:08 AM

Hi, but one configuration file did get applied: `debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config` - please check its content...

cybin

11/11/23, 9:37 AM

Usually, SSH says something like ```debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 21: Applying options for *``` if it applies an option. In the output it just reads the file, but doesn't seem to apply anything.

Score:1

Server

cybin

11/16/23, 8:56 AM

Sorry, for taking your time... I've found the cause of this behaviour:

alias ssh='ssh -l root -o "PreferredAuthentications publickey,password"'

Didn't know, that a package set this alias in /etc/bash.bashrc.

Kind regards...

+ 2

Tilman Schmidt

11/16/23, 12:08 PM

Ouch. That's really bad. Which package was responsible for that?

cybin

11/17/23, 8:45 AM

Don't worry. It's in one of our companies package, which are not public.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: SSH will always authenticate as root

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