problem with ssh key

sneakyimp · 01-07-2013, 04:51 PM

I'm working with a guy who has given me an account on his Red Hat server. I.e., I can login via SSH. The weird bit is that my account shares a uid and gid with his account. Is this normal or a really bad idea?

The problem I'm having is that I want to put my public key in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the server so that I can login via key pair. I have tried putting it in a variety of places but ssh never attempts to use the key pair for authentication.

I had some confusion at first because my user (sneakyimp) and his user (hisuser) apparently each have their own home directory (/home/sneakyimp and /home/hisuser). I've tried putting my public key in both these places but it doesn't work:
/home/hisuser/.ssh/authorized_keys
/home/sneakyimp/.ssh/authorized_keys

I also tried logging in and putting the key in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and that doesn't work either.

when I login using ssh sneakyimp@example.com, the prompt and whoami tell me that I am logged in as hisuser.

I've tried to look at the contents of /etc/ssh/sshd_config but I don't have read permission on the file.

Can anyone help me figure out where to put my public key?

RaviTezu · 01-07-2013, 10:41 PM

Can you please paste the outputs of the following commands?
1. id sneakyimp
2. id hisuser

You may try this also:
1. Change directory(cd) to /home/sneakyimp/.ssh
2. you'll find a file name similar to id_rsa.pub
==> If you dont find a file use ssh-keygen command to generate the keys(you may use a passphrase if you want).
3. Now ssh-copy-id -i id_rsa.pub remote-host-name
==> you can use the remote host name if you have DNS working or you may specify the ip address of the remote-host.
==> "ssh-copy-id -i id_rsa.pub remote-host-name" assumes you are having same username in your system and in your remote system ==> If not you should mention your username(username in remote system) at the beginning of the "remote-host-name" as... ssh-copy-id -i id_rsa.pub xxxxxxx@remote-host-name
here xxxxxxx= username in remote system.
4. You'll be prompted to enter the password assigned to the remote username(xxxxxxx).
5. When you enter a correct password your public key will be copied to the /home/xxxxx/.ssh/authorized_keys.
6. From now, you can login to the remote host without a password.

****Note: Mark this post as helpful,if it helps you.

sneakyimp · 01-07-2013, 11:35 PM

Here is the output of the commands:

Code:

[hisuser@hostname ~]$ id sneakyimp
uid=504(hisuser) gid=504(hisuser) groups=504(hisuser)
[hisuser@hostname ~]$ id hisuser
uid=504(hisuser) gid=504(hisuser) groups=504(hisuser),10(wheel),48(apache)

the .ssh stuff just plain does not work -- there are no .ssh directories in either home directory. As I mentioned in my original post, I have tried putting my public key in a variety of locations. I have done this many times on other hosts and it works just fine.

RaviTezu · 01-07-2013, 11:51 PM

Quote:

-- there are no .ssh directories in either home directory.

Does it mean..you're not having .ssh directory???

If so...

You can create the .ssh directory & authorized_keys file in it manually.

Can you try this?

RaviTezu · 01-08-2013, 12:04 AM

Did you execute the ssh-keygen command?

sneakyimp · 01-08-2013, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RaviTezu

Does it mean..you're not having .ssh directory???

If so...

You can create the .ssh directory & authorized_keys file in it manually.

Can you try this?

I appreciate your help, but did you actually read my original post? I did in fact create an .ssh directory and I put my public key in there. I am no stranger to this operation. I don't need to generate another keypair because I already have one.

RaviTezu · 01-08-2013, 01:13 AM

I'm sorry..if my posts made you angry.

Can you please post the output when you execute:

Quote:

ssh-copy-id remote-hostname

Do you get any permission denied messages?

sneakyimp · 01-08-2013, 01:47 AM

this is the output:

Code:

sneakyimp@my-workstation:~/$ ssh-copy-id sneakyimp@dev.example.com
sneakyimp@dev.example.com's password: 
Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh 'sneakyimp@dev.example.com'", and check in:

  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting.

But, when I try to login, it continues to ask me for my password:

Code:

sneakyimp@my-workstation:~/$ ssh sneakyimp@dev.example.com
sneakyimp@dev.example.com's password:

which means that copying this file had no effect. but I had indicated previously that I had attempted to manually place my public key in a variety of locations.

When I us my password to login after running that command, I see that the command has copied not just the public key that I want to copy but others as well to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (which is the same as /home/sneakyimp/.ssh/authorized_keys).

RaviTezu · 01-08-2013, 02:56 AM

I created a user with name "remote" on my system & changed the uid & gid to the local user uid & gid.
as you can see it from the below:

Quote:

local:x:1001:1001:local user:/home/local:/bin/bash
remote:x:1001:1001::/home/remote:/bin/bash

Quote:

[root@machine ~]# id remote
uid=1001(local) gid=1001(local) groups=1001(local)
[root@machine ~]# id local
uid=1001(local) gid=1001(local) groups=1001(local),4(adm)

When i executed the ssh-copy-id for the first time..and entered the password, i got:

Quote:

Could not chdir to home directory /home/remote: permission denied.

as the home dir of "remote" user had different uid(uid assigned to "remote" when i created the user using useradd). so i changed it to "local" user uid.., using chown command.

After that..ssh-copy-id worked fine.. & i'm able to login without a password prompt.

I can post you the /etc/ssh/ssh_config file content if you want,though i didn't even touched it.

local system os: Fedora16
remote systemos : Fedora17.