ssh-userauth2 successful for root but fails for normal user

From: Roland K. (roland@inkoeln.com)
Date: 11/25/02 

From: roland@inkoeln.com (Roland K.)
Date: 25 Nov 2002 06:35:28 -0800

PROBLEM:

Local root [SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_3.5p1] can login as root@bla.org
without password, but if he tries to login as joe@bla.org
he must provide a password (see debug output) [bla.org runs OpenSSH_2.9p2].

On another machine [running: OpenSSH_2.9.9p2] root can login
as frank@somewhere.net without password.

Is it a OpenSSH_2.9p2 problem, or is something wrong with my
sshd_config (SuSE 7.3 default) ???

DETAILS:
--------

Local root has created a public-key via

root# ssh-keygen -t rsa (empty password)

and copied this key to:

bla.org:/home/joe/.ssh/authorized_keys2
bla.org:/root/.ssh/authorized_keys2

root# ssh -v -l joe bla.org
...
debug1: authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: next auth method to try is publickey
debug1: try privkey: /root/.ssh/identity
debug1: try pubkey: /root/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: try privkey: /root/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: next auth method to try is password
debug1: ssh-userauth2 successful: method password
...

root can not(!) login as joe without password - publickey
authentication seems to fail ...

root# ssh -v -l root bla.org
...
debug1: authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: next auth method to try is publickey
debug1: try privkey: /root/.ssh/identity
debug1: try pubkey: /root/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: input_userauth_pk_ok: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 149 lastkey 0x8094b88 hint 1
debug1: read PEM private key done: type RSA
debug1: ssh-userauth2 successful: method publickey
...

root can login as root without password - publickey authentication is
successfull

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