Failed to start sshd2

[May Leung]

I have just finished building and installing SSH-2.2.0. When I tried to
start the sshd2 deamon, I got the following error.

# /usr/local/sbin/sshd2
FATAL: ssh_privkey_read from /usr/local/etc/ssh2/hostkey failed.

I have already run 'make install' and the hostkey file has been
generated and I have checked that the path is correct. Although I don't
know why I got the following error about the public key when the pair of
hostkey was generating, but the public key should not be used for
starting sshd2.

Generating 1024 bit host key.
Generating 1024-bit dsa key pair
5 oOOo.oOo.oOo
Key generated.
1024-bit dsa hostkey
Key is stored with NULL passphrase.
(This is not recommended.
Don't do this unless you know what you're doing.
If file system protections fail (someone can access the keyfile),
or if the super-user is malicious, your key can be used without
the deciphering effort.)
Private key saved to /usr/local/etc/ssh2/hostkey
ssh_encode_pubkeyblob: failed to get internal parameters from a DSS
public key.
Public key not written !

Does anyone know? Please advise. Thanks.

[May Leung]

Sorry, I made a mistake.

Actually, the error message when I started sshd2 was:

# /usr/local/sbin/sshd2
FATAL: Unable to load public host key from /usr/local/etc/ssh2/hostkey.pub.

After I got this message, I tried ssh-keygen2 to generate the hostkey pair
again. But same error as 'make install' was got.

Generating 1024 bit host key.
Generating 1024-bit dsa key pair
5 oOOo.oOo.oOo
Key generated.
1024-bit dsa hostkey
Key is stored with NULL passphrase.
(This is not recommended.
Don't do this unless you know what you're doing.
If file system protections fail (someone can access the keyfile),
or if the super-user is malicious, your key can be used without
the deciphering effort.)
Private key saved to /usr/local/etc/ssh2/hostkey
ssh_encode_pubkeyblob: failed to get internal parameters from a DSS
public key.
Public key not written !

And then the following error was found when I started sshd2 again.:

# /usr/local/sbin/sshd2
FATAL: ssh_privkey_read from /usr/local/etc/ssh2/hostkey failed.

Does anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance.

May Leung

[Richard E. Silverman]

>>>>> "May" == May Leung <mayl...@cuhk.edu.hk> writes:

May> Although I don't know why I got the following error about the
May> public key when the pair of hostkey was generating, but the
May> public key should not be used for starting sshd2.

This is not true; sshd needs both key components to run, since it needs
give out the public key to clients. SSH1 stores both components in the
"private key" file, encrypting only the private key part, so the .pub file
is only there for human convenience. SSH2, however, does not do this, so
you need both files. Besides, from the error it sounds as if it couldn't
produce the public key at all, due to some internal error.

May> ssh_encode_pubkeyblob: failed to get internal parameters from a
May> DSS public key. Public key not written !

I've never had this problem, but I seem to recall someone posting about
within the past two months or so; you might check back articles.

--
Richard Silverman
sl...@shore.net

[michael salmon]

in the ssh install docs it tells you exactly how to create a real hostkey,
and a dsakey if you want ssh2 compatibility

[Richard E. Silverman]

>>>>> "michael" == michael salmon <m...@papermedia.com> writes:

michael> in the ssh install docs it tells you exactly how to create a
michael> real hostkey, and a dsakey if you want ssh2 compatibility

I don't understand the point of your comment? May appears is using
ssh-keygen correctly; it's showing an internal error.

--
Richard Silverman
sl...@shore.net

[Richard E. Silverman]

>>>>> "michael" == michael salmon <m...@papermedia.com> writes:

michael> in the ssh install docs it tells you exactly how to create a
michael> real hostkey, and a dsakey if you want ssh2 compatibility

I don't understand the point of your comment. May appears to be using