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SSH connection fails with messages “no hostkey alg”

  • Getting the following ssh debug output:

debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-sha1
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-sha1
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
no hostkey alg

  • On CentOS 6, you generate ECDSA hostkeys with correct permissions:

ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key -C '' -N ''
chmod 600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
chmod 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
restorecon /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub

  • To allow ssh clients to accept ECDSA hostkeys, add the following in /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on the ssh server.

Host fips-computeman-hostname
Hostkeyalgorithms ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521

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