SSH Error: trying to get more bytes 4 than in buffer 0
I ran across this cryptic error message in an SSH log file today:
Feb 7 03:33:21 hostname sshd[19439]: error: buffer_get_ret: trying to get more bytes 4 than in buffer 0 Feb 7 03:33:21 hostname sshd[19439]: fatal: buffer_get_int: buffer error
The problem is actually a corrupt line in a users ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. This user had copy/pasted a new key into his authorized_keys file and it had a newline after the ssh-rsa. Strangely enough, people were still able to authenticate if their key was above the corrupted line. Users whose key was listed below the corrupt line were not able to log in.
on November 25th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Thanks! I hit this too. You are right – the error is very cryptic.
on September 30th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Thanks for this.
on October 18th, 2011 at 11:00 am
I never in a thousand years would have figured this out by myself – thanks!