title: Virtualbox responding to SSH on vboxnet0 even when all guests are off
body: <p>I have a MacOS host and virtualbox running a Kali Linux guest. I wanted to set up SSH from the host to the guest. That didn't work (wrong password error). I then realised that even with the guest down, I was getting the same error. </p>
  
  <p>Output of ifconfig on host:</p>
  
  <p>```</p>
  
  <pre><code>lo0: flags=8049&lt;UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 16384
      options=3&lt;RXCSUM,TXCSUM&gt;
      inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 
      inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 
      inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 
      nd6 options=1&lt;PERFORMNUD&gt;
  gif0: flags=8010&lt;POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 1280
  stf0: flags=0&lt;&gt; mtu 1280
  en0: flags=8863&lt;UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 1500
      ether 00:05:69:3c:69:5f 
      inet6 fe80::205:69ff:fe3c:695f%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4 
      inet 172.26.88.44 netmask 0xfffff000 broadcast 172.26.95.255
      nd6 options=1&lt;PERFORMNUD&gt;
      media: autoselect
      status: active
  en1: flags=963&lt;UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX&gt; mtu 1500
      options=60&lt;TSO4,TSO6&gt;
      ether 72:00:00:44:ee:70 
      media: autoselect &lt;full-duplex&gt;
      status: inactive
  en2: flags=963&lt;UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX&gt; mtu 1500
      options=60&lt;TSO4,TSO6&gt;
      ether 72:00:00:44:ee:71 
      media: autoselect &lt;full-duplex&gt;
      status: inactive
  bridge0: flags=8863&lt;UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 1500
      options=63&lt;RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6&gt;
      ether ba:e8:56:93:42:00 
      Configuration:
          id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0
          maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200
          root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0
          ipfilter disabled flags 0x2
      member: en1 flags=3&lt;LEARNING,DISCOVER&gt;
              ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 0 path cost 0
      member: en2 flags=3&lt;LEARNING,DISCOVER&gt;
              ifmaxaddr 0 port 6 priority 0 path cost 0
      nd6 options=1&lt;PERFORMNUD&gt;
      media: &lt;unknown type&gt;
      status: inactive
  p2p0: flags=8843&lt;UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 2304
      ether 0a:e8:56:39:e8:cc 
      media: autoselect
      status: inactive
  awdl0: flags=8943&lt;UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 1484
      ether ee:8d:0b:ea:a5:df 
      inet6 fe80::ec8d:bff:feea:a5df%awdl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x9 
      nd6 options=1&lt;PERFORMNUD&gt;
      media: autoselect
      status: active
  utun0: flags=8051&lt;UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 1500
      inet6 fe80::214f:e34a:37df:baa0%utun0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xa 
      nd6 options=1&lt;PERFORMNUD&gt;
  vboxnet0: flags=8843&lt;UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST&gt; mtu 1500
      ether 0a:00:27:00:00:00 
      inet 192.168.56.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.56.255
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>```</p>
  
  <p>what I see when I connect to <code>192.168.56.1</code>, even with all VMs powered down:</p>
  
  <p>```</p>
  
  <pre><code>ssh  -v root@192.168.56.1
  OpenSSH_7.3p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2h  3 May 2016
  debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/mark/.ssh/config
  debug1: /Users/mark/.ssh/config line 27: Deprecated option "useroaming"
  debug1: Reading configuration data /usr/local/etc/ssh/ssh_config
  debug1: Connecting to 192.168.56.1 [192.168.56.1] port 22.
  debug1: Connection established.
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
  debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
  debug1: identity file /Users/mark/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
  debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
  debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.3
  debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.9
  debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.9 pat OpenSSH* compat 0x04000000
  debug1: Authenticating to 192.168.56.1:22 as 'root'
  debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
  debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
  debug1: kex: algorithm: curve25519-sha256@libssh.org
  debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
  debug1: kex: server-&gt;client cipher: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com MAC: &lt;implicit&gt; compression: none
  debug1: kex: client-&gt;server cipher: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com MAC: &lt;implicit&gt; compression: none
  debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
  debug1: Server host key: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 SHA256:+vfMFaFLTbtzNNGNAl3QSmkfFXcuEdzLDAyoUFuuC6M
  debug1: Host '192.168.56.1' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
  debug1: Found key in /Users/mark/.ssh/known_hosts:45
  debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
  debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
  debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
  debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
  debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
  debug1: Skipping ssh-dss key /Users/mark/.ssh/rms_sgs - not in PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes
  debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
  debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
  debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
  debug1: Offering RSA public key: /Users/mark/.ssh/id_rsa
  debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
  debug1: Trying private key: /Users/mark/.ssh/id_dsa
  debug1: Trying private key: /Users/mark/.ssh/id_ecdsa
  debug1: Trying private key: /Users/mark/.ssh/id_ed25519
  debug1: Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive
  Password:
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>```</p>
  
  <p>and no matter what password I try, nothing works. Why am I even able to connect? What I am connecting to? </p>