ParMan Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 i have been having this problem with backtrack ever since i installed r2 when ever i try to start ssh i get the errors. Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key i ran these commands to get the keys: ssh-keygen -t dsa -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key i am getting these errors on both my laptop running wireless (internet working fine), and a virtual machine (internet works here too). just dont know whats causing it not to work thanks for all your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Are the files rw-rw-r--? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParMan Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) -rw------ l root root 736 Jan 4 15:52 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key -rw------ l root root 1743 Jan 4 15:52 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key so i dont think so. so i changed them to -rw-rw-r and i got this Edited January 4, 2011 by ParMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 lol, ok, well, at least it's not a file access problem :P Change it back of course. I have to wonder if this is a problem on the server and not the client. ssh-keygen isn't asking you for a passphrase is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParMan Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 when i create the key it ask me for a passphrase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 You set the passphrase to blank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParMan Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) no i didnt but i can. so i changed them and service started fine. whats up with that? Edited January 5, 2011 by ParMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Go for it :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Cooper Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 no i didnt but i can. so i changed them and service started fine. whats up with that? When starting up the service didn't know what the passphrase was for your keys, so it couldn't decrypt them to use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParMan Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 so its not really a big deal that they keys dont have pass-phases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexophrenic Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Your host keys should not have passphrases. Your user keys most certainly should. Perhaps you are confusing the 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParMan Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 i must be. anyways thanks for clearing it all up for me its working like a charm now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexophrenic Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Host keys identify the system you are connecting to for testing for a MITM or spoofing of the server and do not require a passphrase by design as mentioned above, systems would not start non-interactively without potentially exposing the passphrase programmatically. SSH user keys (pub/priv keys) are used to verify the identify of the user and can be considered multifactor authentication when using a passphrase (something you have and something you know). Much bettwe security that way, but I have seen lazy admins using only pki for authentication so they do not have to type a password and many admins/devs that use pki without passphrases for automated system authentication (hopefully with very limited access). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Cooper Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Many admins/devs that use pki without passphrases for automated system authentication (hopefully with very limited access). scponly is a great little program that can help with this sort of setup. It lets you limit a user to only doing file transfers rather than letting them also get a shell on the machine. You should probably run it in a chroot environment to really limit what files they can access. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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