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I'm on Windows 10. Need to ssh into a Linux CentOS server. Trying both Putty and Windows SSH (turned on in Features.. Powershell?).

Using PuttyGen, I generated a private & public RSA key pair - rsa & rsa.pub , without any passphrase. Both files are on my desktop. server333 has an entry in C:\Users\johndoe.ssh\known_hosts. There are no other files or directories in that .ssh directory on my windows PC. The public key is also copied into the linux box's /home/johndoe/.ssh/authorized_keys

I tried ssh -i rsa -vvv server333, but it's not working. Here is the log:

c:\Users\johndoe\Desktop>ssh -i rsa -vvv server333
OpenSSH_for_Windows_7.7p1, LibreSSL 2.6.5
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/config error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_config error:2
debug2: resolving "server333" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to server333 [1.2.3.4] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
key_load_public: invalid format
debug1: identity file rsa type -1
debug3: Failed to open file:c:/Users/johndoe/Desktop/rsa-cert error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:c:/Users/johndoe/Desktop/rsa-cert.pub error:2
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file rsa-cert type -1
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_for_Windows_7.7
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_7.4
debug1: match: OpenSSH_7.4 pat OpenSSH* compat 0x04000000
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug1: Authenticating to server333:22 as 'corp\\johndoe'
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from server333
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: [email protected],rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
debug3: send packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug3: receive packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: local client KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: curve25519-sha256,[email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha256,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,ext-info-c
debug2: host key algorithms: [email protected],rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,ssh-ed25519
debug2: ciphers ctos: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected]
debug2: ciphers stoc: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected]
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: compression ctos: none
debug2: compression stoc: none
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug2: peer server KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: [email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp521,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
debug2: host key algorithms: ssh-rsa,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256
debug2: ciphers ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
debug2: ciphers stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,[email protected]
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,[email protected]
debug2: compression ctos: none,[email protected]
debug2: compression stoc: none,[email protected]
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug1: kex: algorithm: [email protected]
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: rsa-sha2-512
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug3: send packet: type 30
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug3: receive packet: type 31
debug1: Server host key: ssh-rsa SHA256:abcd
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from server333
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from 1.2.3.4
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 error:2
debug1: Host 'server333' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: send packet: type 21
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug3: receive packet: type 21
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug3: unable to connect to pipe \\\\.\\pipe\\openssh-ssh-agent, error: 2
debug1: pubkey_prepare: ssh_get_authentication_socket: The socket is not connected
debug2: key: rsa (0000000000000000), explicit
debug3: send packet: type 5
debug3: receive packet: type 7
debug1: SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO received
debug1: kex_input_ext_info: server-sig-algs=<rsa-sha2-256,rsa-sha2-512>
debug3: receive packet: type 6
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug3: receive packet: type 53
debug3: input_userauth_banner
NOTICE TO USERS
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=============================================================================
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug3: preferred publickey,keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_lookup publickey
debug3: remaining preferred: keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: rsa
debug3: sign_and_send_pubkey: RSA SHA256:zyxw
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup password
debug3: remaining preferred: ,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled password
debug1: Next authentication method: password
debug3: failed to open file:c:/dev/tty error:3
debug1: read_passphrase: can't open /dev/tty: No such file or directory
corp\johndoe@server333's password:
5
  • Do you have the server side's logs, by any chance? Dec 8, 2020 at 11:20
  • This debug message - "debug1: Trying private key: johndoe_privatekey.pub" is concerning. Are you trying to pass your public key, with the .pub extension, to the server? The private key should not have the .pub extension. Dec 8, 2020 at 11:27
  • @user1173240 - No, it does that even if I add/drop .pub from the private key file's extension.. ssh always appends a .pub to the file it looks for in the debug messages. I just tried a few different file extensions like .pub, .ppk and no extension. None worked. I don't have server-side logs.
    – d-_-b
    Dec 8, 2020 at 18:32
  • @user1173240 - i edited the question a bit, pls check.
    – d-_-b
    Dec 8, 2020 at 19:55
  • @user1173240 - fixed the issue. see my answer below
    – d-_-b
    Dec 9, 2020 at 0:27

1 Answer 1

1

Finally figured it out - There are 2 issues here:

  1. If you don't specify a username, Windows SSH defaults to DOMAIN\johndoe (which is obviously a windows username), whereas the linux server just expects johndoe. To fix this call ssh johndoe@server333 instead of, ssh server333 and then trying to enter username.

  2. It also requires the filenames to have restrictive permissions (only you, the owner, must have permissions, no one else should). To fix this, remove all other users from the file's security permissions

Once I did both, it worked like a charm. You don't need to put the public key in your local home/.ssh folder. You can just name your private key as id_rsa (without any extension), and place it in home/.ssh folder, and connect to server using ssh johndoe@server333

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