mjhjmtu

I have a VPS running Debian 7 which I use to access through ssh for as long as 4 years.

Now, suddenly, when I try to connect to it, no prompt for password is shown, although the connection to remote sshd is open. And after a few seconds, I get the message "Authentication failed", so that I just can't login to and get a shell prompt.

Does anybody have seen this problem before? Does anybody have any hint on how I may circumvent this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Edit:

Below is the full output of ssh -vvv in order to make it clearer for you to see any detail that may be escaping my attention and/or is out of my poor knowledge.

OpenSSH_7.4p1 Debian-10+deb9u3, OpenSSL 1.0.2l 25 May 2017
debug1: Reading configuration data /home/xyz/.ssh/config
debug1: /home/xyz/.ssh/config line 1: Applying options for xyz.net
debug3: kex names ok: [diffie-hellman-group1-sha1]
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug2: resolving "xyz.net" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to xyz.net [12.34.56.78] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /dev/null type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /dev/null-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.4p1 Debian-10+deb9u3
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-4+deb7u4
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-4+deb7u4 pat OpenSSH* compat 0x04000000
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug1: Authenticating to xyz.net:22 as 'xyz'
debug3: put_host_port: [xyz.net]:22
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file /home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from [xyz.net]:22
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
debug3: send packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug3: receive packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: local client KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: curve25519-sha256,curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha256,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1,ext-info-c
debug2: host key algorithms: ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,ssh-ed25519
debug2: ciphers ctos: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc
debug2: ciphers stoc: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc
debug2: MACs ctos: umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: MACs stoc: umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: compression ctos: none,zlib@openssh.com,zlib
debug2: compression stoc: none,zlib@openssh.com,zlib
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug2: peer server KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: host key algorithms: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss
debug2: ciphers ctos: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
debug2: ciphers stoc: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
debug2: MACs ctos: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-256-96,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-512-96,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-ripemd160@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: MACs stoc: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-256-96,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-512-96,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-ripemd160@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: compression ctos: none,zlib@openssh.com
debug2: compression stoc: none,zlib@openssh.com
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug1: kex: algorithm: ecdh-sha2-nistp256
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ssh-rsa
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: aes128-ctr MAC: umac-64@openssh.com compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: aes128-ctr MAC: umac-64@openssh.com compression: none
debug3: send packet: type 30
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug3: receive packet: type 31
debug1: Server host key: ssh-rsa SHA256:abcdefghugklmnop+qrstuvwxyzabcdefghi+jklmnop
debug3: put_host_port: [12.34.56.78]:22
debug3: put_host_port: [xyz.net]:22
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file /home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from [xyz.net]:22
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file /home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts:2
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from [12.34.56.78]:22
debug1: Host '[xyz.net]:22' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/xyz/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: send packet: type 21
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: rekey after 4294967296 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug3: receive packet: type 21
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: rekey after 4294967296 blocks
debug2: key: /dev/null ((nil)), explicit
debug3: send packet: type 5
debug3: receive packet: type 6
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug3: send packet: type 50

And here, after a few seconds:

Authentication failed.

Well, after all these days awaiting for any solution, I managed with my VPS provider to shut down the machine and boot it up again (I just couldn't do that from the control panel -- it just didn't work!). And all of a sudden ssh access got back to work perfectly!

Unfortunately I have no answer for what happend; I don't know why ssh handshaking was freezing after ssh client sending that packet type 50. It just did happen. And just as I was unable to restart ther server from the provider's web control panel, I think the issue was in the VPS hardware.

Anyway, I thank you all for the attention. Best regards!