openssh unix dev - Jul 2005 - auto login failure: PEM_read_PrivateKey

Hey All,

    Can anyone tell me what the following message implies?  What does 
PEM_read_PrivateKey do and why would it fail?
    This is the result of trying to setup ssh for autologin.  Though I 
follow the man page, it doesn't work.

        debug1: PEM_read_PrivateKey failed


Thanks,
Bill Rees


More Debug Output
=========
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: 
publickey,gssapi-with-mic,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug2: userauth_pubkey_agent: no keys at all
debug2: userauth_pubkey_agent: no more keys
debug2: userauth_pubkey_agent: no message sent
debug1: Trying private key: /home/breeze/.ssh/identity
debug1: Trying private key: /home/breeze/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Offering public key: /home/breeze/.ssh/id_dsa
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-dss blen 432 lastkey 0x80860f0 hint 2
debug2: input_userauth_pk_ok: fp 
9e:72:3d:cd:6f:87:cf:aa:8e:d6:3d:71:18:04:99:7a

        debug1: PEM_read_PrivateKey failed

debug1: read PEM private key done: type <unknown>

Bill Rees wrote:
>     Can anyone tell me what the following message implies?  What does 
> PEM_read_PrivateKey do and why would it fail?
>     This is the result of trying to setup ssh for autologin.  Though I 
> follow the man page, it doesn't work.
> 
>         debug1: PEM_read_PrivateKey failed
THis means that attempting to read the private key 
/home/breeze/.ssh/id_dsa for some reason.  Potential reasons are:

a) corrupt private key file.  Try regenerating it with ssh-keygen.

b) openssl build problems.  Did OpenSSL's "make test" pass?

What platform and compiler are you using?

You can test if OpenSSL can read the keys with something like:
$ openssl dsa -in ~/.ssh/id_dsa -noout

-- 
Darren Tucker (dtucker at zip.com.au)
GPG key 8FF4FA69 / D9A3 86E9 7EEE AF4B B2D4  37C9 C982 80C7 8FF4 FA69
     Good judgement comes with experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgement.