Out of nowhere, ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

Question

I am running Ubuntu 10.10 on a remote box. I ssh to it everyday without issues but today out of the blue, I get the following error:

ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

If I connect with -vv, I get the following:

OpenSSH_5.6p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8r 8 Feb 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/bla/.ssh/config
debug1: Applying options for ubuntu-server
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to ubuntu-server.com [123.123.123.123] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug2: key_type_from_name: unknown key type '-----BEGIN'
debug2: key_type_from_name: unknown key type '-----END'
debug1: identity file /Users/bla/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/bla/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

If I remove the key, I get the exact same output (sans "debug2: key_type_...). I've managed to log in physically and checked my hosts.allow and hosts.deny but they have no entries. I tried removing and reinstalling OpenSSH, checked authorized_keys and ~/.ssh permissions and tried connecting from other computers only to get the same error. I'm at my wits end, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

-rw------- 1 user group 405 2011-10-29 10:20 authorized_keys2

authorized_keys2 is deprecated from version 3.0.

debug3: Not a RSA1 key file /Users/bla/.ssh/id_rsa.
debug2: key_type_from_name: unknown key type '-----BEGIN'
debug3: key_read: missing keytype
debug3: key_read: missing whitespace

It looks like your private key is corrupted. Regenerate the key pair, use ssh-copy-id to install your public key into authorized_keys file and try again.

Answer 2

Does http://edoceo.com/notabene/ssh-exchange-identification this help?

Answer 3

There could be a couple of problems here.

1. Is the server configured to restrict the types of authentication accepted? This can be set with the various *Authentication directives in your sshd_config file.
   • If you're using PAM for authentication, check it's configuration
2. It looks like your key is in some other format. Check out the ssh-keygen -e -i and -m flags.

Answer 4

Could there be a new firewall in between doing something. I have once faced a problem where in a new firewall which was introduced cased the exact same problem. The new firewall was introduced in the servers side.

Answer 5

The same error "ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host" happens when private keys (files) are readable by all, i.e. have the wrong permissions.

For example if any of the private keys "ssh_host_key ssh_host_dsa_key ssh_host_rsa_key" in /etc/ssh/ are chmod 644 (should be chmod 600).

The following permissions results in "ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host" error:

root@host:/etc/config/ssh# ls -la
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root            0 Aug 24  2005 .
drw-rw-rw-    3 root     root            0 Apr  3  2007 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        88039 Aug 24  2005 moduli
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1559 Aug 24  2005 ssh_config
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          668 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_dsa_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          599 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          524 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          328 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_key.pub
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          883 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_rsa_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          219 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         2018 Aug 25  2005 sshd_config

Corrected permissions, connections should now be accepted:

root@host:/etc/config/ssh# ls -la                    
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root            0 Aug 24  2005 .
drw-rw-rw-    3 root     root            0 Apr  3  2007 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        88039 Aug 24  2005 moduli
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1559 Aug 24  2005 ssh_config
-rw-------    1 root     root          668 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_dsa_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          599 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
-rw-------    1 root     root          524 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          328 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_key.pub
-rw-------    1 root     root          883 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_rsa_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          219 Aug 24  2005 ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         2018 Aug 25  2005 sshd_config

Answer 6

It's almost certainly the /etc/hosts.deny file has an entry for your machine, add

sshd: xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa

for your connecting ip address to /etc/hosts.allow