10

Unfortunately I can not connect via sftp to my VPS:

This is my sshd_config:

# Package generated configuration file
# See the sshd_config(5) manpage for details

# What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
Port 22
# Use these options to restrict which interfaces/protocols sshd will bind to
#ListenAddress ::
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
Protocol 2
# HostKeys for protocol version 2
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
#Privilege Separation is turned on for security
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes

# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key
KeyRegenerationInterval 3600
ServerKeyBits 768

# Logging
SyslogFacility AUTH
LogLevel INFO

# Authentication:
LoginGraceTime 120
PermitRootLogin no
StrictModes yes

RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
AuthorizedKeysFile  %h/.ssh/authorized_keys

# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
IgnoreRhosts yes
# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh_known_hosts
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
HostbasedAuthentication no
# Uncomment if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for RhostsRSAAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes

# To enable empty passwords, change to yes (NOT RECOMMENDED)
PermitEmptyPasswords no

# Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with
# some PAM modules and threads)
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

# Change to no to disable tunnelled clear text passwords
PasswordAuthentication yes

# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosGetAFSToken no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes

# GSSAPI options
GSSAPIAuthentication no
#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes

X11Forwarding no
X11DisplayOffset 10
PrintMotd yes
PrintLastLog yes
TCPKeepAlive yes
#UseLogin no
UseDNS yes

#MaxStartups 10:30:60
Banner no

# Allow setting environment variables
AcceptEnv LANG LC_*

#Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
UsePAM yes

AllowUsers [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Match User user
    PasswordAuthentication yes

The verbose output of my connection-attempt:

me:~ user$ sftp -v [email protected]
OpenSSH_6.9p1, LibreSSL 2.1.8
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 21: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to example.org [xx.xxx.xx.xx] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_dsa type 1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.9
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6.1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug1: Authenticating to example.org:22 as 'user'
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client [email protected] <implicit> none
debug1: kex: client->server [email protected] <implicit> none
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: ssh-rsa SHA256:/RUeBQCA1w0nHUWT2OgLDhy7/bNQy4nWH2IVZatMLw4
debug1: Host 'example.org' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/user/.ssh/known_hosts:4
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 279
debug1: Authentication succeeded (publickey).
Authenticated to example.org ([xx.xxx.xx.xx]:22).
debug1: channel 0: new [client-session]
debug1: Requesting [email protected]
debug1: Entering interactive session.
debug1: Sending environment.
debug1: Sending env LANG = de_DE.UTF-8
debug1: Sending subsystem: sftp
debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0
debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype [email protected] reply 0
debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1
debug1: fd 0 clearing O_NONBLOCK
Transferred: sent 3332, received 2796 bytes, in 0.2 seconds
Bytes per second: sent 18890.9, received 15852.0
debug1: Exit status 127
Connection closed

Any idea how to solve this problem?

1
  • 1
    What do your server logs say ?
    – user9517
    Apr 15, 2016 at 9:39

4 Answers 4

16

It most probably means that the /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server does not exist.

Make sure the Subsystem directive points to an existing path:

Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server

Or actually, nowadays you typically use the internal-sftp instead:

Subsystem sftp internal-sftp

See OpenSSH: Difference between internal-sftp and sftp-server.

1

For me it was client configuration fault. 127 code means that command wasnt found. I changed WinSCP config to use "/bin/sftp-server" instead of "default" by mistake. Check your client config.

1
  • Thanks, that was my problem too. The weird thing, was that it did work fine on the original settings. Then one day it stopped on one server, and then on another, and then another... very odd!) Apr 25, 2017 at 15:48
0

This worked for me in SLES 15. Referred the error: debug1: Exit status 127

# grep -i sftp /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Subsystem sftp internal-sftp

Whereas for older version of OS i.e. SLES 12, used below

# grep -i sftp /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Subsystem  sftp /usr/lib/ssh/sftp-server
-1

On mine, the full path to sftp-server was in the config file but was not working. I added "Subsystem sftp internal-sftp" instead, and it started working. Thanks!

Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server <-- not working

Subsystem sftp internal-sftp <--working

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