When installing a server system using virt-manager and the default installation method, one has to configure a user or a root password but it would be often more practical to type a URL of an SSH public key and leave root password locked than to make up a password that would then not be used. That applies especially now that Anaconda has no obvious way to force a specific password when it is considered weak.
FWIW you can embed ssh keys in kickstart files: https://github.com/rhinstaller/pykickstart/blob/master/docs/kickstart-docs.rst#sshkey
Would the kickstart solution be acceptable if anaconda were changed so that it does not require a password for root when an sshkey has been provided?
(In reply to David Shea from comment #2) > Would the kickstart solution be acceptable if anaconda were changed so that > it does not require a password for root when an sshkey has been provided? That would be indeed nice. Anyway, do you think an alternative way as part of the GUI installer would be too much? Also Fedora doesn't seem to be secure enough when root password isn't set, see the following link. http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/184486/a-consistent-and-safe-approach-to-passwordless-accounts-with-ssh (In reply to Brian Lane from comment #1) > FWIW you can embed ssh keys in kickstart files: > > https://github.com/rhinstaller/pykickstart/blob/master/docs/kickstart-docs. > rst#sshkey Nice. Btw... surprised by the docs for the next command... „Note that by default, root has a blank password. If you don't want any user to be able to ssh in and have full access to your hardware, you must specify sshpw for username root. Also note that if Anaconda fails to parse the kickstart file, it will allow anyone to login as root and have full access to your hardware.“ I've never seen Fedora accepting empty passwords for SSH.
(In reply to Pavel Šimerda (pavlix) from comment #3) > Btw... surprised by the docs for the next command... > > „Note that by default, root has a blank password. If you don't want any user > to be able to ssh in and have full access to your hardware, you must specify > sshpw for username root. Also note that if Anaconda fails to parse the > kickstart file, it will allow anyone to login as root and have full access > to your hardware.“ > > I've never seen Fedora accepting empty passwords for SSH. The sshpw command is only for the password used to ssh into the installer environment, and sshd in the installer is only activated if you boot with inst.sshd. sshpw does not affect anything in the installed system. > Anyway, do you think an alternative way as part of the GUI installer would be > too much? A GUI field would probably be ok. Adding another field to the advanced user dialog is easy enough. For root we'll have to think about where we want to put the input, since that spoke doesn't have as much in it right now.
(In reply to David Shea from comment #4) > (In reply to Pavel Šimerda (pavlix) from comment #3) > > Btw... surprised by the docs for the next command... > > > > „Note that by default, root has a blank password. If you don't want any user > > to be able to ssh in and have full access to your hardware, you must specify > > sshpw for username root. Also note that if Anaconda fails to parse the > > kickstart file, it will allow anyone to login as root and have full access > > to your hardware.“ > > > > I've never seen Fedora accepting empty passwords for SSH. > > The sshpw command is only for the password used to ssh into the installer > environment, and sshd in the installer is only activated if you boot with > inst.sshd. sshpw does not affect anything in the installed system. Does it mean this install-time SSH has specific configuration that allows connecting using an empty password? > > Anyway, do you think an alternative way as part of the GUI installer would be > too much? > > A GUI field would probably be ok. Adding another field to the advanced user > dialog is easy enough. For root we'll have to think about where we want to > put the input, since that spoke doesn't have as much in it right now. Happy to read this.
(In reply to Pavel Šimerda (pavlix) from comment #5) > (In reply to David Shea from comment #4) > > (In reply to Pavel Šimerda (pavlix) from comment #3) > > > Btw... surprised by the docs for the next command... > > > > > > „Note that by default, root has a blank password. If you don't want any user > > > to be able to ssh in and have full access to your hardware, you must specify > > > sshpw for username root. Also note that if Anaconda fails to parse the > > > kickstart file, it will allow anyone to login as root and have full access > > > to your hardware.“ > > > > > > I've never seen Fedora accepting empty passwords for SSH. > > > > The sshpw command is only for the password used to ssh into the installer > > environment, and sshd in the installer is only activated if you boot with > > inst.sshd. sshpw does not affect anything in the installed system. > > Does it mean this install-time SSH has specific configuration that allows > connecting using an empty password? Yes. https://github.com/rhinstaller/lorax/blob/master/share/config_files/common/sshd_config.anaconda is the config file used by sshd in anaconda, and as mentioned sshd is only turned on if specifically requested.
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 24 development cycle. Changing version to '24'. More information and reason for this action is here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Program_Management/HouseKeeping/Fedora24#Rawhide_Rebase
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Fedora 24 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2017-08-08. Fedora 24 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this bug. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.