Question

RSA Key Authentication using OPENSSH SFTP client to OPENSSH SFTP Server

Asked by: bbcac

I am trying to setup a file transfer between two windows boxes. It looks like SFTP is the right solution.
I installed the OPENSSH server on machine "A". I setup the users that I want. Then I installed the client on machine "B". These two machines are on different windows domains which is why I am using SFTP to move the files.

I can connect manaully using username and password without an issue. I used the open ssh key gen to generate an RSA key on the client using the right acoount. I added the pub key the .ssh folder on the host machine and appended the key the the authorized_key file as well.

I also configured my SSHD_CONFIG file as noted below.

When I try to connect it disconnects right away without an error. So I tried to connect again with  this connection line
sftp -v -oidentityfile=rsakey SERVERA

Here's the output
----------------------------------------------------------
C:\Program Files\OpenSSH\bin>sftp -v -oidentityfile=RSAKEY
SERVERA
Connecting to SERVERA...
OpenSSH_3.8.1p1, OpenSSL 0.9.7d 17 Mar 2004
debug1: Connecting to SERVERA [10.2.117.60] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file RSAKEY type 1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_3.8.1p1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_3.8.1p1 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_3.8.1p1
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host 'SERVERA' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/backupops/.ssh/known_hosts:2
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received

                            ****USAGE WARNING****

This is a private computer system. This computer system, including all
related equipment, networks, and network devices (specifically including
Internet access) are provided only for authorized use. This computer system
may be monitored for all lawful purposes, including to ensure that its use
is authorized, for management of the system, to facilitate protection against
unauthorized access, and to verify security procedures, survivability, and
operational security. Monitoring includes active attacks by authorized entities
to test or verify the security of this system. During monitoring, information
may be examined, recorded, copied and used for authorized purposes. All
information, including personal information, placed or sent over this system
may be monitored.

Use of this computer system, authorized or unauthorized, constitutes consent
to monitoring of this system. Unauthorized use may subject you to criminal
prosecution. Evidence of unauthorized use collected during monitoring may be
used for administrative, criminal, or other adverse action. Use of this system
constitutes consent to monitoring for these purposes.


debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interacti
ve
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering public key: RSAKEY
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 149
debug1: read PEM private key done: type RSA
debug1: Authentication succeeded (publickey).
debug1: channel 0: new [client-session]
debug1: Entering interactive session.
debug1: Sending subsystem: sftp
debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0
debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1
debug1: Transferred: stdin 0, stdout 0, stderr 0 bytes in 0.5 seconds
debug1: Bytes per second: stdin 0.0, stdout 0.0, stderr 0.0
debug1: Exit status 255
Connection closed

Why can I connect with username and password and not RSA Key Authentication?

#	$OpenBSD: sshd_config,v 1.65 2003/08/28 12:54:34 markus Exp $
 
# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file.  See
# sshd_config(5) for more information.
 
# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
 
# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with
# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where
# possible, but leave them commented.  Uncommented options change a
# default value.
 
#Port 22
#Protocol 2,1
Protocol 2
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
#ListenAddress ::
 
# HostKey for protocol version 1
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
# HostKeys for protocol version 2
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
 
# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key
#KeyRegenerationInterval 1h
#ServerKeyBits 768
 
# Logging
#obsoletes QuietMode and FascistLogging
#SyslogFacility AUTH
#LogLevel INFO
 
# Authentication:
 
#LoginGraceTime 2m
PermitRootLogin yes
 
# The following setting overrides permission checks on host key files
# and directories. For security reasons set this to "yes" when running
# NT/W2K, NTFS and CYGWIN=ntsec.
StrictModes no
 
RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
AuthorizedKeysFile	.ssh/authorized_keys
 
# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
#RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
#HostbasedAuthentication no
# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for
# RhostsRSAAuthentication and HostbasedAuthentication
IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes
# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
#IgnoreRhosts yes
 
# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no
 
# Change to no to disable s/key passwords
#ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes
 
# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes
 
# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIAuthentication no
#GSSAPICleanupCreds yes
 
# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication (via challenge-response)
# and session processing. Depending on your PAM configuration, this may
# bypass the setting of 'PasswordAuthentication'
#UsePAM yes
 
#AllowTcpForwarding yes
#GatewayPorts no
#X11Forwarding no
#X11DisplayOffset 10
#X11UseLocalhost yes
#PrintMotd yes
#PrintLastLog yes
#KeepAlive yes
#UseLogin no
UsePrivilegeSeparation no
#PermitUserEnvironment no
#Compression yes
#ClientAliveInterval 0
#ClientAliveCountMax 3
#UseDNS yes
#PidFile /var/run/sshd.pid
MaxStartups 10:30:60
 
# default banner path
Banner /etc/banner.txt
 
# override default of no subsystems
Subsystem	sftp	/usr/sbin/sftp-server

                                  
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Asked On
2009-09-16 at 05:42:24ID24736067
Tags

SFTP OPENSSH RSA KEY AUTHENTICATION

Topics

VB Script

,

SSH / Telnet Software

,

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) & HTTPS

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-16 at 06:33:09ID: 25345384

debug1: Authentication succeeded (publickey).
debug1: channel 0: new [client-session]
debug1: Entering interactive session.
debug1: Sending subsystem: sftp
debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0


You do get authenticated..., and then something fails when it tries to starts sftp on the remote host.
You need to check loggin on the SERVERA system (either /var/log, or eventvwr) depending on configuration options.
The problem might well be that the /etc/passwd file is not quite correctly built with the correct host security identifiers)

Also if you don't supply a username, your current username is sent across, based on the local /etc/passwd. So maybe you need:
sftp -v -oidentityfile=rsakey target-username@SERVERA

All this assumes you use a cygwin based openssh. ;-)

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-16 at 07:22:52ID: 25345882

Ok.... I wonder if it has something to do with the domain difference then. How do I specify the domain in the sftp command line?
Maybe the solution is to identify the user like you suggested and the domain.

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-16 at 07:22:52ID: 25345883

Ok.... I wonder if it has something to do with the domain difference then. How do I specify the domain in the sftp command line?
Maybe the solution is to identify the user like you suggested and the domain.

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-16 at 07:57:22ID: 25346295

If you use cygwin, then in the /etc/passwd file the link is made between a 'cygwin' user (as mentioned on the ssh commandlines) and a windows user.    Cygwin provides tools for generating the /etc/passwd file.
The so called GCOS field is filled with the security identifier of the relevant account, and this is used both ways to identify users.
There is no other link between the user environment (unix side) that uses uid & gid and the windows side that uses security id's.

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-18 at 12:02:03ID: 25368906

So what is that I am to try?
Again I can connect iwth username and password already

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-18 at 12:16:05ID: 25369036

and how with username + certificate?

sftp -v -oidentityfile=rsakey target-username@SERVERA

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-18 at 12:18:13ID: 25369057

BTW, i once set this up for a bank that wanted reliable private file transfer using cygwin.
besides one site that had queer installation procedure mangling the /etc/passwd files there were no troubles.

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-21 at 05:22:52ID: 25382137

noci,
The results of running the command you put renders the output in my orginal questions.

I can connect with username and password like this.

sftp -v target-username@SERVERA

but if I try to connect with an rsa key it will not work (see original post for details)

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-21 at 10:10:30ID: 25385124

An ssh certificate has no username in it ==> if you connect with
Youre logged on as MrX on system B

and you specify ssh -v serverA, you will attempt to logon as MrX (whether password or certificate).
if you specify ssh -v MrZ@serverA you will attempt to login as MrZ (wether password or certificate).

So you are comparing logging on as username@SERVERA with password with loging on as your local username MrX@SERVERA with a certificate.... and if run from a service process, as the owner of that service process.

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-21 at 11:02:40ID: 25385640

Noci,
I'm very sorry, but I don't understand what it is you are trying to say.
Please tell me what  I should try to do?

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-21 at 12:59:02ID: 25386966

if you don't supply a username on the commandline then your local username is sent to the other side to be used as username.

So if you are user1 on system 1 and want to connect to user1 on system2
you can use either:
ssh system2                              <-- using default local username
ssh user1@system2                  <-- using explicit username

So if you are user1 on system 1 and want to connect to user2 on system2
you can only use:
ssh user2@system2                  <-- using explicit username

Then there is authentication, you can use various methods,
- gssapi / Kerberos ticket  (not enabled on your system)
- certificate with matching private/public keys
- keyboard (= password)

So if you specify -oIdentityFile that is a certificate that can be used instead of a password, if that fails  a password will be used as backup.
So specifying a certificate without the username it probably fails to get to the right user.

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-21 at 13:51:42ID: 25387471

Wheather I explicitly state the username or not, it still doesn't work.
The results are the same.

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-21 at 14:31:28ID: 25387830

What does the host where you login say during/after login... (I asked before, logging, eventvwr?)
You are authenticated, sftp fails to start.., question is why.

I got derailed because of some other things..., (And forgot to delete the last line from the first comment).

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-28 at 18:48:52ID: 25445364

here is the security log of when authenticaiton attempts. I'm sorry it took so long but with all my messing around I was not able to even start the server. I have reinstalled and gotten myself back to the same issue. Please advise if there is other logging that I can attach

Logon Failure:
       Reason:            An error occurred during logon
       User Name:      USERNAME
       Domain:            DOMAIN
       Logon Type:      3
       Logon Process:      Cygwin.1
       Authentication Package:      MICROSOFT_AUTHENTICATION_PACKAGE_V1_0
       Workstation Name:      
       Status code:      0xC000007A
       Substatus code:      0x0
       Caller User Name:      HOSTNAME$
       Caller Domain:      ENT
       Caller Logon ID:      (0x0,0x3E7)
       Caller Process ID:      6452
       Transited Services:      -
       Source Network Address:      -
       Source Port:      -

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-30 at 09:46:34ID: 25460743

have you allready tried running the server in debug mode?
It will only handle one call then but you could try:

  sshd -d -e [ and the other options if needed ]

then it will wait for a connection and you should be able to why the activation of sftp fails.
If -d is not enough information try '-d -d' or even '-d -d -d' instead.
The output will be printed to stdout, so maybe use

  sshd -d -e [ and the other options if needed ]>logfile

to capture the output.

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-30 at 12:03:07ID: 25462158

Thanks for you help... but i figured it out... I was running the server as the local system account (as per the standard install)
I found a guide that suggested moving it to a local admin account and setting some special local polices including allowing the "create token" right.

After that, I restarted the server, and TA-DA! it works!

Thanks,

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-09-30 at 13:08:03ID: 25462897

OK, on a windows 2000 that was not needed...., (and i doubt that there were group policies that could interfere at that time)

 

by: bbcacPosted on 2009-09-30 at 15:11:03ID: 25464165

Aparently this is a known issue with server 2003 and OpenSSH. Google has a lot to say about it.

Thanks for helping me out, I understand key authetication much more now.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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