Comment 0 for bug 1799665

Ubuntu 18.10's libssh 0.8.1 regresses parsing of known_hosts. This happens (sometimes) if there are multiple known_host key types (e. g. ssh-rsa and ssh-ed25519), then it can happen that ssh_session_is_known_server() fails with SSH_SERVER_FOUND_OTHER [1].

I noticed this with testing Cockpit on Ubuntu 18.10 [2], which has a few test cases exercising cockpit-ssh (which uses libssh). The scenario is a FreeIPA centrally managed known_hosts file with these entries:

x0.cockpit.lan ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCv5sLKfLDuEAbTcHC3eOgJM+Ot7F077KewD4e1lGzfw300Jo4xnuPsoJEVSCR7OjsYQCnuVGlqtlavMCLFzIBNk06iTBg/nl+W+xa3CFNITbAjiBif7SeY0XL6Xeqzb1VYXNVfwKQKpcGIbDne6jyou4wRZV1eay03FHTSkd2+XKM6GOUGlkEUoPyAwYPHqoKUYiiyBxJs20l/peXVx6jsGgs2Sc6gl3KJP0TB2E7ncD1pWHGRtiNshFFVarw/YKr+Rs+KhiVS3CAAfYDhpBNWXOwTKyx2euJjAhsRF10bx6pnuadSEpT8Ufo5/YFIVAD1GHptULSzVjUoJm6ktoHB
x0.cockpit.lan ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBCkJ6CaqhzUhrbpbVmZ8BmZZgM3u6BukZ6HFB2a4NLQBdgpHlHbxoJ47ocTImctyFMiDi0y6vCb4tFuZgp6Krmk= root@(none)
x0.cockpit.lan ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAINK6gcOyH4OhiKPcNr33Kl6e+wFAUy9tGFBU/o4yWkxh root@(none)

Connecting to that host with the standard ssh client works:

$ ssh -vv x0.cockpit.lan
[...]
debug1: Server host key: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 SHA256:MgfkN6HEl+pdz0X7+6q08IVkUZOtEDzfA6V18Wm9DgA
debug1: Host 'x0.cockpit.lan' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts:3
[...]
<email address hidden>@x0:~$

But not with cockpit-ssh. This shows the JSON protocol (note that you need to copy&paste the correct cookie value from the response):

$ G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=cockpit-ssh cockpit-bridge --interact=---

{ "command": "open", "channel": "c", "payload": "echo", "host": "x0.cockpit.lan", "user": "<email address hidden>" }
---

{"command":"authorize","challenge":"*","cookie":"session107271540364829"}
---

{"command":"authorize", "response": "password foobarfoo", "cookie": "session107271540364829"}
---
(cockpit-ssh:10814): cockpit-ssh-DEBUG: 03:11:51.049: cockpit-ssh x0.cockpit.lan: host not known in any local file, asking sssd
(cockpit-ssh:10814): cockpit-ssh-DEBUG: 03:11:51.472: cockpit-ssh x0.cockpit.lan: using known hosts file /tmp/known-hosts.IDKNRZ
(cockpit-ssh:10814): cockpit-ssh-DEBUG: 03:11:51.542: cockpit-ssh x0.cockpit.lan: connected
cockpit-ssh-Message: 03:07:30.828: cockpit-ssh x0.cockpit.lan: host key for this server changed key type: ssh-ed25519

{"command":"close","host-key":"x0.cockpit.lan ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAINK6gcOyH4OhiKPcNr33Kl6e+wFAUy9tGFBU/o4yWkxh\n","host-fingerprint":"a0:27:1e:80:de:fd:4b:8a:0d:9d:a9:b6:42:7d:5c:b9","problem":"invalid-hostkey","error":"invalid-hostkey","auth-method-results":{},"channel":"c"}
---

The "host key for this server changed key type" is the effect of this bug.

[1] http://api.libssh.org/master/group__libssh__session.html#gac%20bc5d04fe66beee863a0c61a93fdf765
[2] https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/pull/10357