SSH Key to Existing Droplet

Question

I manually edited my authorized_keys file and added my ssh public key.However when trying to login using the private key in putty I get a disconnected no supported authentication methods available (server sent publickey) error.I read several threads here but can´t find any way to fix this.Any ideas?

jarland · Answer

Hello friend! The first thing I would do is make sure that your key pair is OpenSSH compatible. For example, this is one of my public keys and yours most likely looks the same: ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDLmqjzH1lJ+uTlL2yGjyOcFKdxYFWYLSUdqN5LMRA1YiXHJvTkOo4Ky8w8NmNqJoKwLhxESLNpdUteZbacCRf3I9j57td8IaySk3LFpNK1waDwPcwFlvOv6NtKdwFsgQ0CUqJ6Ya9AUVfTlyePBhH9lKy7gnsloAtHOfGlHdCt5X5f2iB0WU/PPZZskfj79z84dlUPrdfdq8DZmOQDnTEF6XnqaYIqrYXKnPOTovCnOGrc1xJjV+UQ7dZhc/5UCECDK8DEUKZ21aK5htCwhqQFLVV4M6SB7/mDiWXvNx79hKuHDHsHCv6L4YuqHkHAGNtmHq2UxntJ9K6i0DxoMq/1 jarlanddonnell@Jarlands-iMac.local If all is well there, I would add the verbose flag to your SSH connection (ssh -vvv) and go over each line to see what it is doing. If it loads your private keys without error and moves forward without accepting login, I would suggest one of these is true: The server has been configured to not allow the login at all. The server is not loading an authorized_keys file that contains your public key. I couldn’t say for sure which configuration had been changed to cause #1, but #2 should be fine if the public key is on a single line in authorized_keys under /root/.ssh or /home/username/.ssh (if not using root). More than likely I’ve already covered the problem area, taking a closer look at each detail should reveal something that you have not yet noticed. SSH login issues tend to not be very complex at their core. Kind Regards,Jarland

alexdo · Answer

Hello there, You can check our article on How to Upload an SSH Public Key to an Existing Droplet https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/how-to/add-ssh-keys/to-existing-droplet/ You can access the droplet from the DigitalOcean console and then temporary enable the PasswordAuthentication on your droplet and access the droplet with a password to upload the ssh-key. If you haven’t created new pair of keys you’ll need to do that first. You can enable PasswordAuthentication for your Droplet by modifying your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. Once set to Yes restart the SSH service and connect via an SSH client for a more stable connection. You can then modify your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file to add the appropriate public key. This change can be made from the DigitalOcean’s console. If you’re having issues accessing the console you can then reach to our amazing support team that can help you further with this. To enable the PasswordAuthentication follow these steps: Login to the console on the DigitalOcean website. Type sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Change PasswordAuthentication from “no ” to “yes ” and save the file Open a terminal on your computer and type ssh username@[hostname or IP address] or if on a Windows box use PuTTY for password login making sure authentication parameters aren’t pointing to a private key Login with a password Type sudo nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys Paste public key text here and save the file Type sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Change PasswordAuthentication from “yes ” to “no” and save the file Log out and attempt to log back in (if using PuTTY make sure you set up auth parameters to point to your private key) You can then upload the key using this command: ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/mykey user@droplet Hope that this helps!Regards,Alex

Become a contributor for community

DigitalOcean Documentation

Resources for startups and AI-native businesses

The developer cloud

Start building today

Report this

SSH Key to Existing Droplet

Related questions

Abuse report ticket 12854899 submitted Sept 29, still no response

Digital Ocean Team SSO with Entra ID - Work Around?

Post-Incident Security Validation: Rebuild or Trust the Existing Droplet

Best way to securely access a homelab remotely without relying only on Tailscale?

VLESS VPN connects but no traffic passes through (DigitalOcean VPS + x-ui + Xray)

What’s the status of CopyFail patches in shared hosts?

How are you handling the Axios supply chain attack in your deployments?

Keeps signing me out (even more frequently than before)

What’s the best way to secure a DigitalOcean Droplet running WordPress against brute-force attacks?

prevent firewall ssh lock out

how do I find my droplet's username and password?

How To Set Up an Endlessh Tarpit on Ubuntu 22.04

Report this

SSH Key to Existing Droplet

Related questions

Abuse report ticket 12854899 submitted Sept 29, still no response

Digital Ocean Team SSO with Entra ID - Work Around?

Post-Incident Security Validation: Rebuild or Trust the Existing Droplet

Best way to securely access a homelab remotely without relying only on Tailscale?

VLESS VPN connects but no traffic passes through (DigitalOcean VPS + x-ui + Xray)

What’s the status of CopyFail patches in shared hosts?

How are you handling the Axios supply chain attack in your deployments?

Keeps signing me out (even more frequently than before)

What’s the best way to secure a DigitalOcean Droplet running WordPress against brute-force attacks?

prevent firewall ssh lock out

how do I find my droplet's username and password?

How To Set Up an Endlessh Tarpit on Ubuntu 22.04