/etc/init.d/sshd should check for root

[Antiailze]

I ran into a problem of using ssh on a none standard port (with simular errors as reported here http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-978191.html).

I found out that the problem was that i forgot to add sudo when running /etc/init.d/ssh restart. If you bind to a restricted port (like 22) this will give you an error message from the sshd proccess stating that it is not able to bind. However if you bind to a unrestricted port (like 1234), you will not get an error message at all, a ssh process will start, however it will answer nicely, however it will disconnect at some point in the authication sequence because it cannot read the sshd key files in /etc/, since clearly they are restricted to root.

I think that you could fix this headache for other ppl by simply adding a check for root rights in /etc/init.d/ssh

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

Which version are you using?

Thanks
chuck

[Antiailze (antialize)]

Version: 1:5.3p1-3ubuntu3

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Chuck, I didn't need to know the version since no version of openssh has ever checked for root in this init script.