Unusual ssh cron message

jburford · 10-30-2005, 05:04 PM

I received the following email message from my mail server. The mail server is a SMEServer 6 system sitting in a DMZ behind an IPCOP router/firewall. It provides a webmail service, which can be accessed over ssl remotely, but pop access is only local.

I've never received messages from cron before, and have a very bad feeling about this....can anyone explain what is the likely cause, and how to investigate further?

Start message:

/etc/cron.daily/conf-mod_ssl:

2891 semi-random bytes loaded
Generating RSA private key, 1024 bit long modulus
.......++++++
.............................................++++++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
Using configuration from /usr/share/ssl/openssl.cnf
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:State or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:Locality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:Organization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:Email Address []:

End message

Any assistance appreciated!

Jim

TruckStuff · 10-30-2005, 08:19 PM

Do a

Code:

cat /etc/cron.daily/conf-mod_ssl

Looks like the script is trying to regenerate an SSL key.

jburford · 10-30-2005, 08:28 PM

What would trigger this? I have only logged on either to the console, or to web-based email. I have never received an email from the system before, and am interested in why - what does trigger cron to regenerate the ssh key? Is it usual or normal to do this on a regular basis?

James

jburford · 10-31-2005, 03:21 AM

I got home and checked the box. The certificate is a year old, and has expired. SMEServer tried to generate a new one, and apparently failed (no idea why, I'll work on that!).

Anyway, not a train smash, but many thanks to TruckSmash for replying.

I had a few bad moments at work, looking at the message, thinking "this really does not look like a good day..."

Jim

TruckStuff · 10-31-2005, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jburford
What would trigger this?

It ran b/c its in /etc/cron.daily. See man cron.

Quote:

Originally posted by jburford
what does trigger cron to regenerate the ssh key?

Note: it was regenerating an SSH key, not an SSL key. There's a difference.

Quote:

Originally posted by jburford
Is it usual or normal to do this on a regular basis?

Its neither "usual" or "unusual." It all depends on your system config.

Quote:

Originally posted by jburford
SMEServer tried to generate a new one, and apparently failed (no idea why, I'll work on that!).

It failed b/c generating an SSL cert is an interactive process, i.e. it requires user input. There was no user input b/c it ran from cron at 4AM, so it failed.