debug options make sshd crash

Latest response

NOTE: This is for RHEL 7.

Add

OPTIONS="-ddd"

to /etc/sysconfig/sshd makes sshd crash after on ssh into the machine.

Responses

This is as designed.

The sshd man page says (emphasis mine):

-d

Debug mode. The server sends verbose debug output to standard error, and does not put itself in the background. The server also will not fork and will only process one connection.

The debug logging is so extensive that it may in some cases include session key material or other secrets, so you should not use it for regular user connections; it's meant only for debugging and troubleshooting, with the user at the other end of the connection aware of what's going on.

The debug mode behavior of sshd shutting down after each connection is designed to discourage sysadmins from misusing the debug option.

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