Ubuntu 8.04 server SSH Issues

[Swiftie]

Right wonder if someone can help me find out the issue here.

I've just set up a Ubuntu box. I can log in fine with the keyboard connected on the machine.

But if I try to SSH into the box. I can't login using the same crediantials.

The keyboards are the same. Thought it might have been a PS2 to USB thing. But I cant see how that would affect anything.

Have done some testing and so far the password will only work if I don't use any characters that involve using the SHIFT key.

Any takers?

Many thanks

[kinetix63 Veteran]

You're probably not a member of the SSH group....

[Swiftie]

Its a brand new install so how would that have happened? Even as ROOT I cant for the life of me SSH into the box.

Only thing I've done is just grabbed some updates & gave the box a static IP.

Unless APPMOR has decided to play with certain things. :cry:

Using a remote PC and trying to login via Putty I get Access denied and it goes back to asking for a password.

How does one check if I'm a member of the SSH group? Had a look at the sshd_config but no dice in there

Would this have anything to do with the fact that there's 2 packages that are being kept back:

openssh-client and openssh-server

[Swiftie]

Bump,

I really don't like bumping threads. But can any one shed any light as onto what could be wrong?

I cant connect via PUTTY at all. It throws up a access denied message.

How can I check if remote access to the openssh server is dissallowed?

[Matthew S.]

Make sure port 22 is allowed access. Make sure openssh-server is configured correctly.

[Swiftie]

  FusionOpz said:

Make sure port 22 is allowed access. Make sure openssh-server is configured correctly.

Port 22 is open and opensshd is configured correctly otherwise I wouldn't even be able to connect to the server via Putty.

See this is the most f***ed situation I've come across though. In a windows machine, running Putty.

Can't login as I get ACCESS DENIED messages when I input the user's password. But now just tried accessing it from a Ubuntu 8.04 laptop setup I got and its connected with the same credentials. Whats that all about? :crazy:

[wil]

i had a similar issue with ubuntu 8.04 server

i just changed my password (in ubuntu) so that it doesn't have special characters

after that i was able to login through windows with putty and winscp

hope this works ...

- wil

[j.r.l.]

Why don't you use public/private key authentication instead? Generate a private key with Putty-gen, paste it into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, then save the public key in your Documents folder and load it up in PuTTY. There you go, passwordless login.

I disabled password logins on SSH, so the box can't be bruteforced. You need the public key and the passphrase :p

[Swiftie]

  wil said:

i had a similar issue with ubuntu 8.04 server

i just changed my password (in ubuntu) so that it doesn't have special characters

after that i was able to login through windows with putty and winscp

hope this works ...

- wil

Tried this before I created this topic and it did work if I took out any special character, so I guess this was more of a post to question wether this is a bug that I'm experiecing by myself or if it was probably some configuration tweak needed in my SSHD. What would be the point of setting up a password if I couldn't use my special characters that I may want?

  Jay R. said:

Why don't you use public/private key authentication instead? Generate a private key with Putty-gen, paste it into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, then save the public key in your Documents folder and load it up in PuTTY. There you go, passwordless login.

I disabled password logins on SSH, so the box can't be bruteforced. You need the public key and the passphrase :p

Considered this as a security measuer. Just weary of what happens if I lose my authorized key. Lockout? :unsure:

[Vlad]

If you lose your key then you'll just have to login with a password (opensshd automatically falls back to interactive mode if key entry fails).

Really, if this is such an issue, you can:

1. Try changing putty's encoding (maybe UTF-8?)

2. Use another SSH client (such as openssh in cygwin)

3. Create a backdoor account with a very secure password and sudo (a good idea anyways).

4. Just don't use special characters in your password.

Really, I know people love getting all into the security side of things, but an alphanumeric password with mixed caps of a reasonable length (6-12 characters) isn't any less encrypted than one with funky characters. People crack passwords with dictionary attacks and rainbow tables, so my advice to you is to not use dictionary words and not distribute your /etc/shadow file.

Almost all bots that scan ssh servers for access are going to do two things:

1. Try to login with common account names (root, bin, admin, administrator, etc)

2. Try to login with common passwords (no password, password, admin, etc)

So really, don't cripple yourself with crazy passwords (especially if your solution is to use passwordless key exchange instead...).

[offroadaaron]

so you've tried putty and what else to ssh into the box?

have you tried this:

ssh root@localhost

then putting your password in like that? and see if you can connect as root or any other user your wanting to test.

if that works then either your ssh hosts file is screwed somehow (which would usually just say no you can't connect rather than password and username problems).