SSH Private Key Not Working in Some Directories

Posted by uesp on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by uesp
Published on 2011-03-05T23:56:15Z Indexed on 2011/03/06 0:12 UTC
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Filed under:

ssh

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centos

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public-key

I have a strange issue where SSH won't properly connect with a private-key if the key file is in certain directories. I've setup the keys on a set of servers and the following command

ssh -i /root/privatekey [email protected]

works fine and I login to the given host without getting prompted by a password, but this command:

ssh -i /etc/keyfiles/privatekey [email protected]

gives me a password prompt. I've narrowed it down that this behavior occurs in only some sub-directories of /etc/. For example /etc/httpd1/ gives me a password prompt but /etc/httpd/ does not.

What I've checked so far:

All private key files used are identical (copied from the original file).
The private key file and directories used have identical permissions.
No relevant error messages in the server/client logs.
No interesting debug messages from ssh -v (it just seems to skip the key file).
It happens with connecting to different hosts.

After more testing it is not the actual directory name. For example:

mkdir /etc/test
cp /root/privatekey /etc/test
ssh -i /etc/test/privatekey [email protected]    # Results in password prompt
cp /root/privatekey /etc/httpd                  # Existing directory
ls -ald test httpd
  # drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar  5 18:25 httpd
  # drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar  5 18:43 test
ssh -i /etc/httpd/privatekey [email protected]   # Results in *no* prompt
rm -r test
cp -R /etc/httpd /etc/test
ssh -i /etc/test/privatekey [email protected]   # Results in *no* prompt`

I'm sure its just something simple I've overlooked but I'm at a loss.

Developer IT