[Bug 3490] New: Inconsistent behaviour when using -i and -J options

bugzilla-daemon at mindrot.org
Mon, 24 Oct 2022 12:04:57 -0000

Bug ID: 3490
           Summary: Inconsistent behaviour when using -i and -J options
           Product: Portable OpenSSH
           Version: 8.7p1
          Hardware: All
                OS: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P5
         Component: ssh
          Assignee: unassigned-bugs at mindrot.org
          Reporter: wonczak at uni-koeln.de

I already reported this in bugzilla.redhat.com
(https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2127970), but  Dmitry
Belyavskiy told me to raise the issue here as well.
For completeness sake: I'm on CentOS 9 Stream, fully updated.

I'll copy my bug report from the other bugzilla:

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 at jumphost user at 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 at 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 at jumphost

I can also directly login to the targethost:

ssh -i /path/to/ssh-key userA at 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 at jumphost userA at targethost

fails with

userA at 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.