Bug 3453

Summary:	User override in Host not respected
Product:	Portable OpenSSH	Reporter:	Matt <mattfleming.au>
Component:	ssh	Assignee:	Assigned to nobody <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX
Severity:	minor	CC:	djm, dtucker
Priority:	P5
Version:	8.6p1
Hardware:	amd64
OS:	Mac OS X

Description Matt 2022-06-29 13:00:26 AEST

Hello,

It seems that the User directive isn't resolved correctly inside a Host anymore. Example below - note ssh is using matthewfl not matt.fleming as configured. This was working fine with a previous version. It works correctly if the top level User is removed.

# ~/.ssh/config

# https://www.qualys.com/2016/01/14/cve-2016-0777-cve-2016-0778/openssh-cve-2016-0777-cve-2016-0778.txt
UseRoaming no

Compression yes

User matthewfl

Host aws-bastion
    User matt.fleming
    Hostname 54.252.158.21

Host dev-*
    User matt.fleming
    ProxyJump matt.fleming@54.252.158.21

Host dev-ssw
    HostName 172.22.5.60
    User matt.fleming

❰matthew❙~/.ssh❱✔≻ ssh dev-ssw
matthewfl@172.22.5.60: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).
❰matthew❙~/.ssh❱✘≻ ssh aws-bastion
matthewfl@54.252.158.21: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).

Comment 1 Darren Tucker 2022-06-29 13:45:50 AEST

This is how it's always worked: first match for a specifc keyword wins.  Quoting ssh_config(5):

     For each parameter, the first obtained value will be used.  The configu-
     ration files contain sections separated by Host specifications, and that
     section is only applied for hosts that match one of the patterns given in
     the specification.

If you want to override User, put it at the top of the file.  If you want to provide a default User, put it at the bottom of the file.

Comment 2 Damien Miller 2023-03-17 13:41:53 AEDT

OpenSSH 9.3 has been released. Close resolved bugs