# Could not verify the server key. The authentication failed. \[fingerprint problem?\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Installation Issues\ **Created:** [December 3, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985 "2023-12-03T12:38:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/1 "2023-12-03T12:38:16Z")
**Checklist** [x] I have read intro post: [About the Installation Issues category](https://community.passbolt.com/t/about-the-installation-issues-category/12) [x] I have read the tutorials, help and searched for similar issues [x] I provide relevant information about my server (component names and versions, etc.) [x] I provide a copy of my logs and healthcheck [x] I describe the steps I have taken to trouble shoot the problem [x] I describe the steps on how to reproduce the issue Hello, I’ve installed and run passbolt on docker - it was working as expected. After restarting the docker stack I get the error: “Could not verify the server key. The authentication failed.” The installation was finished by creating intial user ‘passboltadm’. After passbolt was up and running I registered another user ‘usr1’ that was added to the admin group too. Unfortunately I removed user ‘passboltadm’. Passbolt was running after removal and I was able to store account data till docker restart. After docker restart of the passbolt stack I get the error menitoned above. I logged into the passbolt container. > pg --home $GNUPGHOME --list-keys shows public keys of ‘passboltadm’ and ‘usr1’ > gpg --home $GNUPGHOME --list-secret-keys shows only private key of user ‘passboltadm’ Exporting PASSBOLT\_GPG\_SERVER\_KEY\_FINGERPRINT for ‘passboltd’ and running > ./bin/cake passbolt healthcheck works (successful, only mentioning that SSL use is not forced) Exporting PASSBOLT\_GPG\_SERVER\_KEY\_FINGERPRIN for ‘usr1’ and running healthcheck fails with: > ./bin/cake passbolt healthcheck ```auto Could not use key A1A... for signing. get_key failed in /usr/share/php/passbolt/src/Utility/OpenPGP/Backends/Gnupg.php on line 240 Caused by: [Exception] get_key failed in /usr/share/php/passbolt/src/Utility/OpenPGP/Backends/Gnupg.php on line 236 ``` Healthcheck ```auto ./bin/cake passbolt healthcheck ``` send a test email ```auto ./bin/cake passbolt send_test_email \ --recipient=youremail@domain.com ``` the datacheck ```auto ./bin/cake passbolt datacheck --hide-success-details ``` and database migrations status ```auto ./bin/cake migrations status ``` are fine (pass). So I guess it was a bad idea to remove the user form the installation process … How to recover without loosing stored account infos? I’d like to mention that I did not specify the DATASOURCES\_DEFAULT\_ env variables in the docker-compose.yml. Instead I used passbolt’s install wizard. After docker reboot and without the env-variables I got the error that passbolt wasn’t installed and than the internal error 500 after starting the installation wizard. After adding the DATASOURCES\_DEFAULT\_ varaibles to docker-compose.yml I end up with the “Could not verify the server key” error … not sure if this info is relevant. thank you in advance, Oliver ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/2 "2023-12-03T16:52:34Z")
I was able to recover from the problem by (making a backup before) removing the files serverkey\_private.asc/serverkey.asc in directory gpg and jwt.key/jwt.pem in directory jwt. After restarting the passbolt docker container I was notified that the fingerprint has changed. All the account data I’ve had registered are available again. What I need to know is: is there still a problem because I’ve had removed the first user (admin group) that was created during the installation process? ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 10:54am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/3 "2023-12-04T10:54:43Z")
Hey @olko welcome to the forum! Deleting an admin account won’t cause an issue with the server so you are fine there. Since you rotated your GPG key you’ll want to take a look at the administration settings though and possibly re-add any that are missing. These encrypted with the GPG key and stored in the database so rotating it can make them unreadable. ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 11:16am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/4 "2023-12-04T11:16:02Z")
Hi clayton, you are right the setting for the email server are lost. What I’m wondering why the gpg keys from the removed ‘passboltadm’ are still in the keyring? Especailly its private key is available while the private key of my account isn’t shown. Might it be a good idea to re-add the “Passbolt default user” ‘passboltadm’ with its gpg-keys? If yes, what are the steps? ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/5 "2023-12-04T12:25:15Z")
Are you sure that this is the private key of the previously deleted user and not just the server GPG key? Depending what email address you used to make the server GPG key it might look like the user’s key but actually be the server key The private key of the users shouldn’t be on the server. ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/7 "2023-12-04T17:24:23Z")
Seams that it was the server GPG key. > gpg --list-keys ouputs. ```auto pub rsa3072 2023-12-04 [SC] 63210.... uid [ultimate] Passbolt default user ``` Under which circumstances does the connection between passbolt server and database break? I don’t understand why this error I reported happened … (I’d like to prevent it in the future). ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 8:11am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/8 "2023-12-05T08:11:40Z")
Typically the connection between passbolt and the database won’t break. I see that you mention you changed the connection information and restarted docker. What commands did you use for the restart? ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 8:27am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/9 "2023-12-05T08:27:52Z")
I’m not sure what has broken the connection between db and passbolt-servcie. I guess it was re-deploying the docker configuration, but the persistent storage wasn’t changed - which should keep the connection. I’m confused … ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 9:43am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/10 "2023-12-05T09:43:19Z")
The persistent storage wasn’t changed but you mentioned the environment variables like `DATASOURCES_DEFAULT_` were changed which hold the connection information for passbolt ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 9:47am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/11 "2023-12-05T09:47:49Z")
> [@clayton](#): > > `DATASOURCES_DEFAULT_` right but the data I put into the install wizard and later into the `DATASOURCES_DEFAULT_` variables are the same, meaning pointing to the same db instance ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 10:37am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/12 "2023-12-06T10:37:13Z")
For a docker install there typically wouldn’t be an install wizard and you’d just be filling in the environment variables. How did you access the install wizard for this? Just want to make sure I have the full steps for what you did here for the installation ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 10:48am UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/13 "2023-12-06T10:48:40Z")
I did a typical docker installation (without the env variables). After the docker instance was up I entered the URL ([passbolt.myurl.com](http://passbolt.myurl.com)). The start pages told me that the installation is not complete - the page provides a button to start the wizard (asking for db account, first user etc.). ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 12:50pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/14 "2023-12-06T12:50:57Z")
Ok, that is a bit outside of the typical install path. I don’t believe your route is tested, the expectation when using docker is that you’d update the environment variables and install that way. If you haven’t input any passwords yet I’d recommend starting over and following the standard installation for docker. ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 1:53pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/15 "2023-12-06T13:53:59Z")
Hmm - using the wizard was more convenient … Unfortunately I’ve moved my passwords to passbolt. At the moment I start the docker container with following environment variables: - APP\_FULL\_BASE\_URL: - DATASOURCES\_DEFAULT\_HOST: - DATASOURCES\_DEFAULT\_DATABASE: - DATASOURCES\_DEFAULT\_USERNAME: - DATASOURCES\_DEFAULT\_PASSWORD: Because the wizard completed without errors I assume that the installation (storing the relevant data into the database) was correct. Is there any check beside the healtcheck that can validate the correctness of my installtion? ---
**Author:** ![clayton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@clayton](https://community.passbolt.com/u/clayton)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/16 "2023-12-06T15:01:33Z")
In that case I’d recommend taking a [backup](https://help.passbolt.com/hosting/backup/docker.html) and following the [migration guide](https://help.passbolt.com/hosting/upgrade/ce/migrate-existing-ce-to-docker.html). I’m guessing the GPG issue you faced comes from not following the installation guide. The webinstaller path creates a GPG key but this is also done in docker if you don’t specify one with an environment variable(the [rotate keys page](https://help.passbolt.com/faq/hosting/how-to-rotate-server-gpg-keys) shows this in action). I am not sure what all issues you may face down the line by keeping your current set up. Other than the healthcheck we also have a status-report that can be run which is the healthcheck plus a few extra commands. It follows the same instructions as the healthcheck but you’d run `./bin/status-report` instead of `./bin/cake passbolt healthcheck` ---
**Author:** ![olko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@olko](https://community.passbolt.com/u/olko)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.passbolt.com/t/could-not-verify-the-server-key-the-authentication-failed-fingerprint-problem/8985/17 "2023-12-06T16:10:48Z")
Thank you Clayton, I’ll take a backup and do a fresh installation of passbolt (as the links show I can export and re-import the stored accounts).