Related

Tool [NEW] Bandwidth Pricing Calculator Tool
cpu from 13% to 100% in one minute Question Question
PHP Error Log: authz_core:error - For files that don't exists on my server Question Question

Question

How do I disable access to my server via a root password?

Posted March 16, 2016 24.5k views
ApacheSecurityDigitalOceanNetworking

Hi.

I setup my droplet on my iMac and I used a ssh key to access the server. I then created a separate ssh key for my laptop, but when I tried to access the server with the new key, it asked me for the root users password. Why is this? How do I disable password access to my server? I don’t even want a password for the root is this possible?

Add a comment
brewpixels
By:
brewpixels

Related

Tool [NEW] Bandwidth Pricing Calculator Tool
cpu from 13% to 100% in one minute Question Question
PHP Error Log: authz_core:error - For files that don't exists on my server Question Question

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

×
Submit an Answer
4 answers
ryanpq March 17, 2016

That setting is controlled by the PasswordAuthentication directive in /etc/ssh/sshd_config setting this to “no” will disable password authentication on ssh. If you are being prompted on your second computer for a password I would double-check your configuration and make sure you can log in with your new key before turning off password authentication. SSH will attempt key based authentication before prompting for a password.

Reply Report
gondwana May 15, 2017

Don’t forget to restart ssh! I had to use command:
sudo systemctl restart ssh

Reply Report
brewpixels May 14, 2018

I finally got this working. As @ryanpq said you have to set PasswordAuthentication to no. But doing this alone didn’t work for me. Every-time I tried to log into my server from my desktop without using a password, I would get the permission denied (public key) error.

To fix this I had to manually add my public key to /.ssh/authorized_keys on my server. For some reason the key I added on the settings page for my droplet was not being used.

Now when I log into my server from my desktop I have to use the public key. I can’t log into my server from my laptop because I haven’t added a key to that machine yet. This is exactly what I wanted.

Reply Report
rickseeger April 24, 2016
[deleted]
Reply Report

Related

Looking for something else?

Ask a new question Search for more help