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Description of problem: Keys explicitly provided by "-i /path/to/keyfile" is ignored when -J <jumphost> is on the command line Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): openssh-8.7p1-22.el9.x86_64 How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. ssh -i /path/to/ssh-key -J user@jumphost user@targethost Actual results: ssk-key is ignored, login fails Expected results: ssh-key should be used, login succeeds Additional info: Detailed description and observations. In the process of setting up a jumphost I noticed what I would classify as a bug in ssh. I set up a jumphost which knows userA, which then passes the connection though to userA@targethost. The jumphost does not allow password-login of userA, just key-login. A special key was generated for this connection chain, which is stored in /path/to/ssh-key. The public key was put into the authorized_keys-file of userA on both jumphost and targethost. I can login into the jumphost by ssh -i /path/to/ssh-key userA@jumphost I can also directly login to the targethost: ssh -i /path/to/ssh-key userA@jumphost This will be disallowed later, hence the requirement for a jumphost. The jumphost will also disallow direct logins of users later; direct login is only allowed for debugging right now. Now for the weird part: ssh -i /path/to/ssh-key -J userA@jumphost userA@targethost fails with userA@jumphost: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic). kex_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host Connection closed by UNKNOWN port 65535 checking with "ssh -v", the key provided by the -i option is not even read (keys replaced by #### for privacy): (...) debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: user,11.11.2008,linux mgr user RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_ecdsa (...) debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Offering public key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic debug1: Offering public key: user,11.11.2008,linux mgr user RSA SHA256:#### agent d (...) If I place /path/to/ssh-key into the .ssh-folder of localuser, the key -is- offered automatically (no -i option this time), and login to targethost works (...) debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: user ECDSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: user,11.11.2008,linux mgr user RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_ecdsa (...) debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Offering public key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic debug1: Offering public key: user ECDSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Server accepts key: user ECDSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Offering public key: user,11.11.2008,linux mgr user RSA SHA256:#### agent d (...) If I remove the key from localuser's .ssh-folder again, but add it to ssh-agent: (ssh-add /path/to/ssh-key), login again works (no -i option): (...) debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: user ECDSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: user,11.11.2008,linux mgr user RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa debug1: Will attempt key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_ecdsa (...) debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Offering public key: /home/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic debug1: Offering public key: /path/to/ssh-key ECDSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Server accepts key: /path/to/ssh-key ECDSA SHA256:#### agent (...) At one point I had forgotten to remove the -i from the command line after adding the key to ssh-agent, and the last to lines changed to: (...) debug1: Offering public key: /path/to/ssh-kedebug1: Offering public key: /path/to/ssh-key ECDSA SHA256:#### agent debug1: Server accepts key: /path/to/ssh-key ECDSA SHA256:#### agent y ECDSA SHA256:#### explicit agent debug1: Server accepts key: /path/to/ssh-key ECDSA SHA256:#### explicit agent (...) So it seems that the -i option -is- evaluated, but not used in all cases. Very strange, and IMHO inconsistent behaviour indeed.
No comments? This issue is severly hampering testing/debugging when creating a new jumphost.
Sorry for the delay. I didn't have a chance to investigate it yet :( As I'm not aware of any difference between our code and upstream here, it's probably worth raising this issue upstream.
I think if this is brought upstream by a RedHat-Engineer, this would probably get a bit more attention than if it came from me. In any case the behaviour is easily reproducible, as described above.
I'm sorry but at first (and second) glance I don't see any code that could cause this behavior. As the questions will be definitely raised, I strongly prefer you to report this problem because only you can answer those questions.
OK, I followed you suggestion and reported this issue in the OpenSSH-bugtracker. Bug-ID for reference: https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3490 If there are news I will update here, too.
Thank you very much!
Upstream considers this behavior as correct, closing.