SSH pubkey authentication doesn't work in Fedora 36-37

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I have a fairly typical setup with two desktops in the same room. One is running F36 xfce4, and the other on is running f37 xfce4. The object is to ssh between the two systems and do normal ssh stuff like scp, etc.

I have myself as a user on both systems. I have created ssh keys with passphrases and they are the same on both systems. I have learned not to use the dsa key, the system rejects it, unfortunately.

In any case, although all the .pub keys were added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, and that is the ONLY content of “authorized_keys”.

I can’t load up ssh keys, or use even just one, and have that be accepted as authentication on the remote system to which I am ssh’ing. Instead, I always have to enter my password on the remote system. I have fiddled with ssh_config and sshd_config, and associated files (such as /etc/ssh/sshd_config/50-redhat.conf).

I thought I had it set up right, but despite innumerable tries, it only works with a password.

I am including part of the debug output that I just ran, for good measure.

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Offering public key: /home/baz/.ssh/id_ecdsa ECDSA SHA256:IVMZlDGFDQZ84ji65gZkiywSmD/OKnKGYg/ZJJ6j7qA explicit agent
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Offering public key: /home/baz/.ssh/id_rsa RSA SHA256:op1kDGFIaZbIEykAdTBzcVro87Fv7jD7xqpjmQpIdxQ
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Offering public key: /home/baz/.ssh/id_ecdsa ECDSA SHA256:IVMZlDGFDQZ84ji65gZkiywSmD/OKnKGYg/ZJJ6j7qA
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup password
debug3: remaining preferred:
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled password
debug1: Next authentication method: password
baz@dk1's password:

It’s that response: packet type 51, that tells me the key is being rejected. But after all that, I am stumped.

Despite the difference in Fedora release between the two systems, I had the same issue when both computers were using f36 (xfce).

Thank you!

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SELinux on one system ?

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Are permissions of ~/.ssh directory (must be rwx------) and its content (must be rw------- for private key and authorized_keys file) correct? Then, if SELinux is the problem, restore context of files with restorecon -R ~/.ssh command.

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It worked! The key was the SElinux involvement. The restorecon command did the trick. I wish I knew more about SElinux. I used it to change the default port for ssh. I need to study up on it a bit.

Thank you/

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