Sshd -t responds with unable to load host key even though host key exists

[ianqtc]

I’m in a confusing scenario with my sshd. When I run sshd -t (as mentioned by the arch wiki) I receive

Unable to load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.

even though it exists in the folder. Running ls /etc/ssh I get

moduli  ssh_config  sshd_config  ssh_host_dsa_key  ssh_host_dsa_key.pub  ssh_host_ecdsa_key  ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub  ssh_host_ed25519_key  ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub  ssh_host_rsa_key  ssh_host_rsa_key.pub

The relevant section of my sshd_config is

# HostKey for protocol version 1                                                                                                                                                                                                          
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key                                                                                                                                                                                                            
# HostKeys for protocol version 2                                                                                                                                                                                                         
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key                                                                                                                                                                                                         
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key                                                                                                                                                                                                        
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key                                                                                                                                                                                                      
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key   

Note that the ssh_host_rsa_key is what is uncommented, but even when I’ve got them all commented out, it still raises an error. Any help would be appreciated

[dalto]

Are the permissions on /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key correct? It probably needs to be 600

@ianqtc

Note that the ssh_host_rsa_key is what is uncommented, but even when I’ve got them all commented out, it still raises an error.

What is the error when they are all commented out?

Also, are you running sshd -t as root? Because you won’t have access as a normal user.

Lastly, have you tried starting it with systemd instead? systemctl start sshd

[ianqtc]

Yeap! They are 600

Also, are you running sshd -t as root? Because you won’t have access as a normal user.

I was running it as a standard user … When I ran it as root everything worked. Thanks for your help!

Lastly, have you tried starting it with systemd instead? systemctl start sshd

Yeah, I was running it via sudo systemctl start sshd