Question
PermitRootLogin no still allows root login via SSH
- Posted on April 1, 2019
- Initial Server SetupUbuntu 18.04
Asked by Chris McKulka
I have updated PermitRootLogin in /etc/ssh/sshd_config to no and issued a service ssh restart (multiple times) and I can still login via SSH as root using a public key. This should be blocked correct?
I have read the related Q&As here and various others from a Google Search. As far as I can tell I’ve done the right thing but I can still login.
root@infra:~# cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep PermitRootLogin
PermitRootLogin no
# the setting of "PermitRootLogin yes
root@infra:~#
Restarting ssh returns no errors, etc.
root@infra:~# service ssh restart
root@infra:~#
PasswordAuthentication is also set to no (although root never had a password – started with a pub key installation) and for good measure UsePAM is set to no.
Love any suggestions!
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FYI re. a solution. Restarting the service didn’t cause the new settings to take effect. Rebooting the server did. No idea why that is the case.
Hello,
By default on new Ubuntu servers, the
PermitRootLoginis set toyes. So you can search only forPermitRootLoginin thesshd_config.To disable root login you have to change this line:
To:
However keep in mind that by default, on Ubuntu, password authentication is already set to
no:Once you make a change to the
sshd_conffile you need to also restart the SSH service:Hope that this helps!
for me, i had
set in my ~/.ssh/config deleting the control path directory fixed the issu