scp fails where ssh succeeds; buffer_get?

[Alexy Khrabrov]

I have built the freshest CVS versions of openssh and still observe
the same strangest behavior I encountered when trying to scp from a SuSE
7.2 to RedHat 7.1 system -- I built openssl-0.9.6e on RedHat as well--
and updated a lot of stuff; but still:

ssh succeeds, and scp fails, leaving the following message in 
/var/log/secure: 
Aug  5 11:50:44 pdb-pc-6 sshd[4609]: fatal: buffer_get: trying to get more bytes than in buffer

I compiled --with-tcp-wrappers and the client is allowed (obviously,
as ssh succeeds).  Local machines on the same subnet can scp without
any problems.  Same thing happens with sftp -- both ask for password,
then hang.  If the key is kept by an agent, scp simply quits, saying
that the server closed the connection.

I never observed that before, my SuSE box works like a clock in both
client/server modes.  What can be possibly broken on the Red Hat box?

Cheers,
Alexy