PROBLEM DESCRIPTION or QUESTION



When connecting to Fedora 33 with an RSA key, the following message appears and the connection is denied.


Connecting to 123.123.123.123:22...
Connection established.
To escape to local shell, press Ctrl+Alt+].
[14:47:16] Version exchange initiated...
[14:47:16] server: SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_8.4
[14:47:16] client: SSH-2.0-nsssh2_7.0.0006 NetSarang Computer, Inc.
[14:47:16] SSH2 is selected.
[14:47:16] Outgoing packet: 20 (0x14: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT)
[14:47:16] Incoming packet: 20 (0x14: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT)
[14:47:16] Algorithm negotiation initiated... (Dialog mode)
[14:47:16] key exchange: curve25519-sha256@libssh.org
[14:47:16] host key: rsa-sha2-256
[14:47:16] outgoing encryption: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com
[14:47:16] incoming encryption: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com
[14:47:16] outgoing mac: hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com
[14:47:16] incoming mac: hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com
[14:47:16] outgoing compression: none
[14:47:16] incoming compression: none
[14:47:16] Outgoing packet: 30 (0x1e: SSH2_MSG_KEXDH_INIT)
[14:47:16] Incoming packet: 31 (0x1f: SSH2_MSG_KEXDH_REPLY)
[14:47:16] Host authentication initiated...
[14:47:16] Hostkey fingerprint:
[14:47:16] rsa 3072 8a:c3:90:89:16:7a:43:ad:db:ca:d5:7d:91:c0:7e:c1
[14:47:16] Accepted. Verifying host key...
[14:47:16] Verified.
[14:47:16] Outgoing packet: 21 (0x15: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS)
[14:47:16] Incoming packet: 21 (0x15: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS)
[14:47:16] Outgoing packet: 5 (0x05: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST)
[14:47:16] Incoming packet: 6 (0x06: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT)
[14:47:16] User authentication initiated... (Dialog mode)
[14:47:17] Sent user name 'testuser'.
[14:47:17] Outgoing packet: 50 (0x32: SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST)
[14:47:17] Incoming packet: 51 (0x33: SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_FAILURE)
[14:47:23] Outgoing packet: 50 (0x32: SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST)
[14:47:23] Sent public key blob, type:ssh-rsa.
[14:47:23] Incoming packet: 51 (0x33: SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_FAILURE)
[14:47:23] Server rejected the public blob.



RESOLUTION


This issue occurred because the SSH server does not accept the Xshell supported ssh-rsa key format(SHA1).

When OpenSSH 8.2 was released, OpenSSH stated that the ssh-rsa key format would be excluded from the default list in the near future.
(https://www.openssh.com/txt/release-8.2)

Fedora 33, released in October 2020, includes OpenSSH 8.4 by default, and the ssh-rsa format is omitted from the default list in its OpenSSH server as expected.

Solution

You can choose one of the followings: