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List:       gentoo-sparc
Subject:    strange openssh behavior?
From:       "David Monk" <david () purplebear ! net>
Date:       2002-11-27 17:35:20
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This is not specific to sparc, but I'm posting here anyway. I don't think I
need to mention why.

Anywho, I have mostly used ssh over the past couple years just using
password auth. This has worked great. It has even been working great on my
been installed for months Gentoo Sparc box. I just recently have started
calling myself somewhat of a programmer and have been playing with cvs to
store code in. Well, to do this via ssh and not get prompted for a password
with every cvs command, you must migrate to using keys and ssh-agent. No
problem. This too is great, even better than just passwords. Keychain makes
life easy.
Today, I did an emerge rsync; emerge -uv world. I update regularly, so the
only updates were to gentoolkit and some other library, I can't remember
which. And I added cvs and rcs to this sparc box to become my permanent
repository. Somewhere in the midst of all this, I decided to log in to that
box directly from my work pc, which doesn't have a key setup. So, I had to
use password authentication. It failed. Repeatedly it failed. Remember, I
had been using password auth previously for a few months on this same box. I
managed to via a third box get a public key over to it, and passphrase
authentication worked fine. I got logged in. I was curious why password
authentication was failing, so I began digging. First, I was kind of shocked
to find that my account on that box did not have shell set. Hell, there are
no defaults in /etc/default/useradd. So, I set a shell and sure enough
password authentication worked.
I am now curious why. Why would passphrase authentication work and give me a
shell and password authentication not when I have no shell set? Shouldn't it
fail in both cases? Am I missing something?
Just hoping someone can set me straight if I am off base with this.

David Monk CCNA, MCSE
david@purplebear.net


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