How can I disable SSH login for a root user? (I am the account owner)

December 16, 2014 15.2k views
Jtowsk
By:
Jtowsk

How can I disable SSH login for a root user? (I am the account owner)

1 comment
Log In to Comment
1 Answer
kamaln7 MOD December 16, 2014

You can disable root SSH login by editing /etc/ssh/sshd_config, setting PermitRootLogin to no, and then restarting ssh:

sudo service ssh restart
Reply
  • Jtowsk December 16, 2014

    Thanks but I need to disable SSH for ONE root user, not all.

  • kamaln7 MOD December 16, 2014

    There is only one root user a typical linux system. If you want to disable SSH access for a specific user, add the following line to sshd_config and restart SSH:

    DenyUsers user1 user2 ...
  • optimusprime April 20, 2018

    I've added: PermitRootLogin no to /etc/ssh/sshd_config

    entered "sudo service ssh restart"

    but it is still allowing me to ssh root@myip

    i know this post is old, but can someone help me out here?

    • kamaln7 MOD April 22, 2018

      Are you still able to log in as root? With that setting, you will still be prompted for a password but it will never let you actually log in, even if you enter the correct one.

    • tomsantic June 24, 2018

      In your /etc/ssh/sshd_config navigate to the following section:

      # To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
#PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no
PasswordAuthentication yes

      Change the PasswordAuthentication default value from "yes" to "no"

      Now it should look like:

      
# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
#PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no
PasswordAuthentication no

      Save, exit and run the following command:

      systemctl restart sshd; systemctl status sshd

      Attempting to login as root will yield the following:

      Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).
      • travisb064600 August 24, 2018

        Those are instructions for preventing password based SSH access for ALL users. That is very different from preventing one user "root" from being able to login via ssh.

Have another answer? Share your knowledge.