Description

Due to what I recall being a Paramiko issue, we sometimes have to guess as to whether a given authentication exception is asking us for a SSH private key passphrase, or for a normal system password. This results in Fabric asking for a passphrase when it's really asking for a password.

This happens to me quite often because I have SSH-agent running and connecting to servers without my public key on them gets me the passphrase prompt (because Fab detects that I'm using an agent/loading my private key) when the actual problem is that the remote end wants my password.

Since there's no way for Fab to detect this itself (it has to lean on what Paramiko provides) it will probably entail horribad monkeypatching, or submitting a bugfix to Paramiko.

Note that the test test_passphrase_prompt_displays_host_string in tests/test_network.py will need to be updated when this is fixed, as right now it doesn't really do what it says it does :(

Originally submitted by Jeff Forcier (bitprophet) on 2009-11-08 at 10:32am EST

Relations

• Related to Explore move back to external Paramiko dependency #86: Explore move back to external Paramiko dependency
• Related to Incorrect behavior re: trying multiple or specific keys #150: SSH key and agent weirdness
• Related to Password memory edge case: passphrase vs password #213: Password memory edge case: passphrase vs password
• Related to Full stack tests choking on passphrase-vs-password issue #223: Full stack tests choking on passphrase-vs-password issue
• Related to Consider forking Paramiko #275: Consider forking Paramiko
• Related to Incorrect keypair-file name prompts the user for new password #325: Incorrect keypair-file name prompts the user for new password