If .ssh/config present backups don't start

[cerebrux]

Describe the bug
The Vorta Backup does not work if there is a config file with settings in .ssh/

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to Vorta
2. Click on Backup now
3. See error : ERROR: Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on server ?

Then to workaround it do:

1. Move or remove your config eg. mv .ssh/config .ssh/myconfig-backup
2. Go to Vorta
3. Click on Backup now
4. Backups now working

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Ubuntu 20.10
• Vorta version: v0.7.1
• Borg version: 1.1.13
• Installed from: Ubuntu Software (flatpak-system)

Additional context
When the error occurs, logs are displaying :

vorta.borg.borg_thread - INFO - Running command /app/bin/borg create --list --progress --info --log-json --json --filter=AM -C lz4  /home/user/yolo
vorta.borg.borg_thread - WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config
vorta.borg.borg_thread - ERROR - Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?

When I apply the workaround, logs are displaying:

vorta.borg.borg_thread - DEBUG - Using VortaSecretStorageKeyring keyring to store passwords.
asyncio - DEBUG - Using selector: EpollSelector
root - DEBUG - Found 1 passwords matching repo URL.
vorta.borg.borg_thread - INFO - Running command /app/bin/borg create --list --progress --info --log-json --json --filter=AM -C lz4 [....] /home/user/yolo
vorta.borg.borg_thread - INFO - Creating archive at "[....]"
vorta.borg.borg_thread - INFO - Remote: Storage quota [....]

I'm not sure, but it seems related to #526

[samuel-w]

I have an ssh config and it works fine..

[samuel-w]

The error message seems to be permission related. Check your ssh config permissions.

[m3nu]

Same here. Had my ~/.ssh/config forever and never an issue with Borg. Maybe the issue is due to a specific setting in your config?

[cerebrux]

This is for all users out there that may or may not encounter the same problem.

What I did to test and finally fix my problem :

• Remove (or rename ) any file named config from .ssh
• Launch Vorta, click "Backup Now" and backups work as expected.

Now let's "brake" it:

• Create an empty config file inside .ssh/ with your regular user eg. touch .ssh/config
• Launch Vorta, click "Backup Now" and you get the message "ERROR: Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on server?".
• Check log files where you get : WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config
• Check permissions of the empty config file : -rw-rw-r-- 1 user user config

Now let's "fix" it:

• Even though the user had the permission to read and edit the file, this is not sufficient. I had to remove the permissions from others. In other words, I needed to have rw for user only permissions on config.
• To fix permissions run chmod 600 .ssh/config
• Launch Vorta, click "Backup Now" and backups work as expected.

Should the message ""ERROR: Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on server" also include the warning WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config ?

[Hofer-Julian]

Should the message ""ERROR: Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on server" also include the warning WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config

Yes, I think that would be for the best

[samuel-w]

So the issue to solve here is displaying the ssh error messages, instead of overwriting them.
Example json output:

{"type": "log_message", "time": 1607677712.879403, "message": "Remote: Warning: Identity file /home/user/.ssh/keyname not accessible: No such file or directory.", "levelname": "WARNING", "name": "root"}
{"type": "log_message", "time": 1607677712.8797798, "message": "Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config", "levelname": "WARNING", "name": "root"}
{"type": "log_message", "time": 1607677712.883788, "message": "Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?", "levelname": "ERROR", "name": "borg.archiver", "msgid": "ConnectionClosedWithHint"}

[mwmcode]

Thanks @cerebrux the workaround eventually worked.

I think this should have a higher priority especially since the error message is not clear.
I do use the ssh config file:

Host ssh.dev.azure.com
  User git
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/work_azure_rsa
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Host *
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  IdentitiesOnly yes
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes

[mwmcode]

It works when I add an entry for borgbase

Host MY.repo.borgbase.com
  AddKeysToAgent no
  UseKeychain no
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/borgbase
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Need to remember to update/add the entry when connecting to a new borgbase repo

[JocelynDelalande]

What is weird is that with same ~/.ssh/config (world readable)

• SSH works fine
• borg in CLI works fine
• vorta fails (with the wrong message in UI, as already said)

So appart the message being unclear, maybe vorta is trying to oversmart something ?

[JocelynDelalande]

Log was the same as @cerebrux posted :

vorta.borg.borg_thread - WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config
vorta.borg.borg_thread - ERROR - Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?

version : v0.7.2 with flatpak

[m3nu]

This error is unrelated to Vorta. You can try the solution described here: https://serverfault.com/questions/253313/ssh-returns-bad-owner-or-permissions-on-ssh-config

[SerhiyMakarenko]

I can confirm the same behavior described by @JocelynDelalande. I have .ssh/config managed by Nix package manager. It's just symlink to the generated file stored under the hood of the Nix package manager:

[15:47] serhiy_makarenko [/home/serhiy_makarenko/.ssh] > ls -lah
total 36K
drwx------  4 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko 4,0K мар 14 16:00 ./
drwxr-xr-x 27 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko 4,0K мар 14 11:42 ../
lrwxrwxrwx  1 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko   74 мар 14 15:47 config -> /nix/store/8g3g9g0zmydz1mrg2dcrxmcpl49nqh2i-home-manager-files/.ssh/config
-rw-------  1 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko  452 мар 14 10:15 id_ed25519
-rw-------  1 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko  132 мар 14 10:15 id_ed25519.pub
-rw-------  1 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko 1,9K мар 14 10:18 known_hosts
drwxr-xr-x  2 serhiy_makarenko serhiy_makarenko 4,0K мар 14 14:45 rsa/
[16:02] serhiy_makarenko [/home/serhiy_makarenko/.ssh] >

I'm not able to change permissions on this file. And the result is weird:

• SSH works fine
• borg in CLI works fine
• Vorta fails (with the wrong message in UI about borg not running on the host)

The Vorta log output is the same:

vorta.borg.borg_thread - WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/user/.ssh/config
vorta.borg.borg_thread - ERROR - Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?

I was successful to make a workaround -- add shell commands before and after backup:

mv .ssh/config .ssh/config-backup
mv .ssh/config-backup .ssh/config

But this is not a very good solution since during the long backup run I will be not able to use my ssh configuration.

I will be very appreciative if we can find a solution to this issue.

Thank you.

[m3nu]

The error you are seeing is from SSH, not Vorta. Your workaround may mask some other permission issue. Maybe Vorta runs as different user? Asking because the users/home folders in your logs are all different. (/home/user/.ssh/config, /home/serhiy_makarenko/.ssh)

[SerhiyMakarenko]

Thank you for the prompt replay, @m3nu.

I have checked the logs, the output the following:

2021-03-14 10:52:51,809 - vorta.borg.borg_thread - WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/serhiy_makarenko/.ssh/config
2021-03-14 10:52:51,810 - vorta.borg.borg_thread - ERROR - Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?

Probably, when I wrote my comment I just copy a reply from @JocelynDelalande because it looks similar to records in my logs.
According to the htop Volta running from my user (I have installed it from flatpak repo):

Vorta use some python libs to interact ssh?

Thanks, Serhiy

[myfirstnameispaul]

I just experienced the same problem with flatpak install. I uninstalled, then installed with pip and no problems connecting. Finally found this discussion after some searching, set 600 on config and flatpak version worked immediately.

This is in Linux Mint 20 with 0.8.6.