Windows 10 server authentication key ERROR! Failed to read private key

[after]

Hello,

I have followed this tutorial to install a key authentication on my Windows 10 server: https://kb.nomachine.com/AR02L00785

I connect to the server from a Linux system.

Both systems have the same version installed: 8.10.1

With password I can connect but with key it refuses my connection. The key is created exactly like in the article but at the end I added -C “COMMENT” but I guess this is not a problem because I use the same think on a Linux server and it is working fine.

Log from user side (I have removed the IP and user):

8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:07 520,442 ClientDaemonConnector: Starting a new connection to host ‘xxxxxxxxx’ on port ‘4000’.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:07 520,482 Connection: Started connection at 0x2bdf420.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:07 522,504 ClientSession: Started session at 0x2a22e60.
Info: Slave server running with pid 8294.
Info: Listening to slave connections on port 23442.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:07 529,362 Main: Entering the GUI event loop.
Info: Connection to XXXXXX port 4000 started at 11:18:07 589,250.
8282 8303 2024-01-06 11:18:08 848,710 ClientSession: A valid certificate for this server was found.
8282 8303 2024-01-06 11:18:15 580,396 Encryptor/Encryptable: ERROR! Failed to read private key.
Error: Failed to read private key.
8282 8303 2024-01-06 11:18:15 580,454 Encryptor/Encryptable: ERROR! SSL error is 151584876, ‘error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line’.
Error: SSL error is 151584876, ‘error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line’.
8282 8303 2024-01-06 11:18:15 580,478 DaemonLogin/DaemonLogin: ERROR! Cannot get certificate.
Error: Cannot get certificate.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:15 580,711 Connection: WARNING! Ignoring the I/O error and waiting for the daemon error reporting.
8282 8287 2024-01-06 11:18:15 580,722 DaemonClientApplication/DaemonClientApplication: WARNING! Session terminated abnormally.
8282 8287 2024-01-06 11:18:15 580,737 DaemonClientApplication/DaemonClientApplication: WARNING! Error is 1, ‘Operation not permitted’.
Warning: Connection to XXXXXXX port 4000 failed at 11:18:15 580,741.
Warning: Error is 1, ‘Operation not permitted’.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:15 589,627 Connection: Connection at 0x2bdf420 failed.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:15 589,651 ClientSession: Runnable at 0x2bdf420 caused the session at 0x2a22e60 to fail.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:15 589,659 ClientSession: Failing reason is ‘Authentication failed for user XXX’.
8282 8282 2024-01-06 11:18:15 589,999 Connection: Finishing connection at 0x2bdf420.

I don’t understand why is not working…I even changed the permission to 777 on the key on user side.

Thank you!

[Britgirl]

Hi,

the steps work for us in our environment.

Please tell us:

– on which machine you generated the key

– which openssh version is installed there

– the exact command you used to generate that key

Last thing to check on the server side (I understand from what you write that you are connecting to a Windows machine) is whether the .nx/config/authorized.crt file is correctly named, has the correct permissions (needs to be readable for All) and that the key is added correctly.

[after]

Hi Britgirl,

– I have generated the key on my Linux pc.

– OpenSSH_8.9p1 Ubuntu-3ubuntu0.6, OpenSSL 3.0.2 15 Mar 2022 (I think between the time when I created the key and current version was an update done).

– Command used: ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa_nomachine

Yes, I am connecting to a Windows machine.

I used: “cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa_nomachine.pub >> ~/Desktop/authorized.crt” and I have copied this file to the windows server in “C:\Users\Username\.nx\config\authorized.crt”

SYSTEM + Administrators and User has full-control access on the file.

Thanks!

[Britgirl]

Can you tell us if the workaround in the TR here helps?

https://www.nomachine.com/TR05S10271

As a temporary workaround in  ‘Edit connection’ -> ‘Modify’ next to ‘Use key-based authentication with a key you provide’, do not check option ‘Import the private key to the connection file’ in the UI.

[Author]

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