Related

Certbot unable to locate virtual host Question Question
Why my website down? SSH cannot be accessed Question Question

Question

Problem with adduser, permission denied (publickey).

Posted April 13, 2020 750 views
Ubuntu 18.04

After creating a user (logged in as root) and trying to log in, I get “permission denied (publickey).”

Add a comment
tcp
By:
tcp

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.

×
2 answers
bobbyiliev April 13, 2020

Hi there @tcp,

What you have to do first is:

  • SSH to the Droplet as root

  • Create a new user:

  • adduser your_user
  • Add the new user to the sudoers group:
  • usermod -aG sudo your_user
  • Copy the root account’s~/.ssh/authorized_keys to your new user’s home directory so that you could ssh as your new user:
  • rsync --archive --chown=your_user:your_user ~/.ssh /home/sammy

Note: change the your_user:your_user part with your actual username.

Hope that this helps!
Regards,
Bobby

Reply Report
  • tcp April 13, 2020

    Hi Bobby!

    Thanks for replying, I’m totally new at this so every suggestion is worth a lot to me!

    How do I copy the root account’s keys to my new user, easiest?

    Thx,
    Zeke

    Reply Report
    • bobbyiliev April 13, 2020

      Hi there @tcp,

      You can do that by running the following command:

      • sudo rsync --archive --chown=your_user:your_user /root/.ssh /home/sammy

      Note: change sammy with your actual user name.

      Let me know how it goes!
      Regards,
      Bobby

      Reply Report
      • tcp April 14, 2020

        It seems my answer got “arrested” xd

        No, that doesn’t change anything unfortunately.

        //Zeke

        Reply Report
        • bobbyiliev April 18, 2020

          Hi there Zeke,

          Can you share the output of the following command:

          • ls -l /home/your_user/.ssh

          I think that maybe the permissions of the authorized_keys file are too open. You could try to change them with the following command and try again:

          • sudo chmod 600 /home/your_user/.ssh/authorized_keys

          And also the same for your .ssh folder:

          • sudo chmod 700 /home/your_user/.ssh

          Let me know how it goes!
          Regards,
          Bobby

          Reply Report
sumsign April 13, 2020
[deleted]
Reply Report
tcp April 13, 2020

Strange… still the same “Permission denied. (publickey).

Reply Report
  • bobbyiliev April 14, 2020

    Hi there @tcp,

    Can you share the output of the following command:

    • ls -l /home/your_user/.ssh

    I think that maybe the permissions of the authorized_keys file are too open. You could try to change them with the following command and try again:

    • sudo chmod 600 /home/your_user/.ssh/authorized_keys

    And also the same for your .ssh folder:

    • sudo chmod 700 /home/your_user/.ssh

    Let me know how it goes!
    Regards,
    Bobby

    Reply Report
  • bobbyiliev April 14, 2020

    Also as a side note, make sure to use the reply button rather than posting your replies as answers, otherwise, I might miss your replies.

    You can also tag me to a reply by using the @ symbol followed by my username, just like this:

    @bobbyiliev

    That way I will receive an email and I would know that you’ve replied.

    Reply Report
Submit an Answer

Related

Looking for something else?

Ask a new question Search for more help