For some reason, ssh-keygen is unable to write to /root even as root on
AlmaLinux 8:
# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root) context=system_u:system_r:initrc_t:s0
# id -Z
ls -ld /root
# ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -N "" -f /root/rootless.key || cat /var/log/audit/audit.log
Saving key "/root/rootless.key" failed: Permission denied
The audit.log shows:
> type=AVC msg=audit(1744834995.352:546): avc: denied { dac_override } for pid=13471 comm="ssh-keygen" capability=1 scontext=system_u:system_r:ssh_keygen_t:s0 tcontext=system_u:system_r:ssh_keygen_t:s0 tclass=capability permissive=0
> type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1744834995.352:546): arch=c000003e syscall=257 success=no exit=-13 a0=ffffff9c a1=5641c7587520 a2=241 a3=180 items=0 ppid=4978 pid=13471 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=(none) ses=4294967295 comm="ssh-keygen" exe="/usr/bin/ssh-keygen" subj=system_u:system_r:ssh_keygen_t:s0 key=(null)␝ARCH=x86_64 SYSCALL=openat AUID="unset" UID="root" GID="root" EUID="root" SUID="root" FSUID="root" EGID="root" SGID="root" FSGID="root"
A workaround is to use /root/.ssh directory instead of just /root.
While at it, let's unify rootless user and key setup into a single place.
Signed-off-by: Kir Kolyshkin <kolyshkin@gmail.com>
