Hi,
all of a sudden I am unable to logon to machines on one of my subnets using ssh. I can ping the machines no problem.
I usually use passwordless login but that has stopped working. I am now prompted for a password but even the password fails, i just get reprompted

Any ideas?

thanks

#ssh -v happy4
OpenSSH_3.8.1p1 Debian-8.sarge.4, OpenSSL 0.9.7e 25 Oct 2004
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Connecting to happy4 [192.168.2.5] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/nosbod/.ssh/identity type -1
debug1: identity file /home/nosbod/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: identity file /home/nosbod/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_4.3p2 Debian-8
debug1: match: OpenSSH_4.3p2 Debian-8 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_3.8.1p1 Debian-8.sarge.4
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 'happy4' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/nosbod/.ssh/known_hosts:5
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
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /home/nosbod/.ssh/identity
debug1: Offering public key: /home/nosbod/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Trying private key: /home/nosbod/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive
Password:

What is the message you receive when you attempt to login?

The most common cause I've seen of this is "insecure" ssh.

That is to say ssh = secure shell - it expects your target to be secure so it won't work if the user's home directory or his $HOME/.ssh directory is writable by anyone other than the user. That is because it means someone else could modify keys or other things so it isn't secure any longer.

The fix is simple - lock down the permissions on the home directory and the $HOME/.ssh directory so that it is writable only by the user. Also make the $HOME/.ssh readable only by the user - no one else has any reason to read what is in the .ssh subdirectory.