Question

How to fix putty error: "Putty fatal error: No supported authentication methods available (server sent: public key)"

I am using a new droplet with Ubuntu, and have Windows and Putty on my local machine…For setting up ssh I am following: https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/how-to/connect-with-ssh/putty/ and choosing the option to skip over “specify an ssh key…” and use login and password instead, but I get the error: “Putty fatal error: No supported authentication methods available (server sent: public key)”. I do not see any posted solutions which do not involve setting up an ssh key.

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alexdo • October 9, 2019
Accepted Answer

Hello, @mtoepp

Can you please access your server/droplet and open the ssh config file, located in:

/etc/ssh/ssh_config

And make sure that the following line is not comment out (set with # at the beginging)

PasswordAuthentication yes

If the line has # at the beginning, please remove it and then restart the ssh service:

sudo service ssh restart

If Password Authentication is set to yes, then you should be able to connect using a password.

Let me know how it goes.

alexdo • October 11, 2019

Hey, @mtoepp

I’m glad that you’ve sorted this out! Have a great day! :)