Sign_and_send_pubkey: signing failed: agent refused operation (ePass2003)

ssh-keys

Configuring SSH Keys from ePass2003 to access servers.

I have a guest ubuntu 16.04 on VirtualBox, i am able to SSH server 1 from VM but while SSH to server 2 from server 1, getting below error.

debug3: authmethod_is_enabled publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opensc-pkcs11.so
debug3: send_pubkey_test
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 60
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg rsa-sha2-512 blen 279
debug2: input_userauth_pk_ok: fp SHA256:M0HzYuvGQ8LcKpJIGPgQDrN6Xs8jpyjH4wRQdslGeV
debug3: sign_and_send_pubkey: RSA SHA256:M0HzYuvGQ8LcKpJIGPgQDrN6Xs8jpyjH4wRQdslGeV
**sign_and_send_pubkey: signing failed: agent refused operation**

When i run ssh-add -l on server 2, i can see the below output.

$ ssh-add -l
error fetching identities for protocol 1: agent refused operation
2048 SHA256:M0HzYuvGQ8LcKpJIGPgQDrN6Xs8jpyjH4wRQdslGeV /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opensc-pkcs11.so (RSA)

I have made AllowAgentForwarding yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. But still no luck in getting SSH connection to Server2 from Server1.
If anyone can help me getting through this would be great.

Thanks in Advance !!

Best Answer

I was able to get the fix for connection issue with SSH Keys. I had to make changes in SSH config files at location /etc/ssh/ssh_config and ~/.ssh/config

$ cat ~/.ssh/config
Host *
Compression yes
ForwardAgent yes
ForwardX11Trusted no
GSSAPIAuthentication no
PreferredAuthentications=publickey

and

$ cat /etc/ssh/ssh_config
Host *
ForwardAgent yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes
HashKnownHosts yes
GSSAPIAuthentication no
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials no

After above changes, restart ssh-agent and do ssh-add.

$ eval $(ssh-agent)
$ ssh-add -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opensc-pkcs11.so

I hope this should work with you all as well if you come across such issues.

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