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libcurl or libssh2 somewhat random authentication failures

From: Yang Tse <yangsita_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:01:40 +0100

Hi friends,

curl autobuilds have been exhibiting a somewhat random problem in
tests related with libssh2. And I say random because it does not occur
all times, it doesn't depend on the system running the tests, some
days some systems fail but the same system runs the test properly
other days, and it does not affect a specific 6XX test, any 6XX can
exhibit the problem(s).

The problem is related with public key authentication not completing
properly under some circumstance which I cannot further investigate
since it doesn't fail in systems I have available.

So if someone wants to try to fix this, go ahead I'm unable to
pinpoint it any further.

Now some details that might help.

The failure happens in lib/ssh.c when
libssh2_userauth_publickey_fromfile() is called it fails with "SSH
public key authentication failed: Invalid signature for supplied
public key, or bad username/public key combination".

But it is a really absurd failure. Previous to this failure other 6XX
tests have run and have authenticated properly. And after the failure
other 6XX tests also authenticate properly. And even further, when the
SFTP/SCP server is started the test harness performs a valid
authentication. So I mostly suspect that the problem is with the code
itself and not a 'key' real problem.

With less frequency but at the same point the failure can also be reported as:

"SSH public key authentication failed: Would block requesting userauth list"

Have fun

-- 
-=[Yang]=-
Received on 2008-03-21