Index: dropbear-0.51/svr-authpubkey.c
===================================================================
--- dropbear-0.51.orig/svr-authpubkey.c	2008-04-22 17:29:49.000000000 -0700
+++ dropbear-0.51/svr-authpubkey.c	2008-04-22 17:29:49.000000000 -0700
@@ -176,6 +176,8 @@
 		goto out;
 	}
 
+	if (ses.authstate.pw_uid != 0) {
+
 	/* we don't need to check pw and pw_dir for validity, since
 	 * its been done in checkpubkeyperms. */
 	len = strlen(ses.authstate.pw_dir);
@@ -187,6 +189,9 @@
 
 	/* open the file */
 	authfile = fopen(filename, "r");
+	} else {
+		authfile = fopen("/etc/dropbear/authorized_keys","r");
+	}
 	if (authfile == NULL) {
 		goto out;
 	}
@@ -274,6 +279,8 @@
 		goto out;
 	}
 
+	if (ses.authstate.pw_uid != 0) {
+
 	/* allocate max required pathname storage,
 	 * = path + "/.ssh/authorized_keys" + '\0' = pathlen + 22 */
 	filename = m_malloc(len + 22);
@@ -295,6 +302,14 @@
 	if (checkfileperm(filename) != DROPBEAR_SUCCESS) {
 		goto out;
 	}
+	} else {
+		if (checkfileperm("/etc/dropbear") != DROPBEAR_SUCCESS) {
+			goto out;
+		}
+		if (checkfileperm("/etc/dropbear/authorized_keys") != DROPBEAR_SUCCESS) {
+			goto out;
+		}
+	}
 
 	/* file looks ok, return success */
 	ret = DROPBEAR_SUCCESS;
