Related

Is it possible to configure an sftp user for uploading and editing but NOT downloading files? Question Question
Set umask for another user Question Question

Question

ssh : Permission denied (publickey)

Posted January 19, 2018 78.1k views
SecurityUbuntu 16.04

Dear !!

I created droplet 2 weeks ago.
I followed the using ssh guide, creating ssh key, adding ssh key for security on digitalocean.
I have logined the system everyday since setup.

But Today I try . : ssh root@IP address, I found the following message.
Permission denied (publickey).

I searched all question, but not working.

Please help me.

Add a comment
njyoon
By:
njyoon
Add a comment
1 comment
  • skynet5615 August 6, 2018
    Reply Report

    I created droplet today but i can’t access with ssh.
    when i run: ssh user@ip_addr
    it return Permission denied (publickey).
    what can i do to solve that?

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.

×
13 answers
djoles January 19, 2018

I had same issue couple days ago. My problem was name of public key, I just rename public key to id_rsa and it works again.

Try with ssh -vvv root@IP address and see what is your problem with login.

Reply Report
  • njyoon January 19, 2018

    When I try this command : ssh -vvv root@IP address,

    the result is below.

    debug2: key: /Users/happy/.ssh/idrsa (0x7fe651412070), explicit, agent
    debug3: send packet: type 5
    debug3: receive packet: type 7
    debug1: SSH2    MSGEXTINFO received
    debug1: kexinputextinfo: server-sig-algs=<rsa-sha2-256,rsa-sha2-512>
    debug3: receive packet: type 6
    debug2: service    accept: ssh-userauth
    debug1: SSH2MSGSERVICEACCEPT received
    debug3: send packet: type 50
    debug3: receive packet: type 51
    debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
    debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey
    debug3: preferred publickey,keyboard-interactive,password
    debug3: authmethod    lookup publickey
    debug3: remaining preferred: keyboard-interactive,password
    debug3: authmethodisenabled publickey
    debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
    debug1: Offering RSA public key: /Users/happy/.ssh/idrsa
    debug3: send    pubkey_test
    debug3: send packet: type 50
    debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
    debug3: receive packet: type 51
    debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
    debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
    debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
    Permission denied (publickey).

    Reply Report
hadrianbayanulh January 20, 2018

Do you have multiple ssh-keys on your computer?
you might wanna check if you have added your ssh key to your agent with ‘ssh-add -L’

Reply Report
careers March 14, 2018

We are getting same issue since few days. Anyone found solutions?

Reply Report
rothmaan April 5, 2018
Reply Report
leeu November 28, 2018

When I created my very first droplet, I encountered the same error.

The solution was:

  1. Generate a keypair in localhost using “ssh-keygen” and press <Enter> for the rest.
  2. Add a public key to your account settings with name “id_rsa.pub”.
  3. Create the droplet after <1>. Make sure to check the checkbox to use existing pub key.
  4. After droplet creation, log in as usual “ssh root@<droplet_ip>”

Hope it helps.
Vu

Reply Report
fergusmurray January 21, 2018

I’m having a very similar experience, except I’m not sure I ever managed to log in! Everything ends in Permission denied (publickey). e.g.

ssh-copy-id oolong@[my IP address]
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
Permission denied (publickey).

I’m using Mint, fwiw.

Reply Report
hunterdding February 20, 2018

Meets the same issue , anyone who has solved it ?

Reply Report
csselo April 12, 2018

I have the same problem.
I tried everything in digitalocean

rothmann doesn t work

Reply Report
pablomonfortgamesindustry May 17, 2019

have same problem , any news? i copy the pub key i generated via git bash then i did ssh root@etc but dosnt work… says same Permission denied (publickey) for root

Reply Report
9cv9official June 30, 2019

Same issue. when trying with ssh root@ip_add, it says Permission denied (publickey).

Reply Report
wmshek1992 July 29, 2019

Same issue. It used to be successful at the first time. But then ends up the same issue.

Reply Report
drdexterua August 6, 2019

Hello there. Any updates with this question?
I ran into the same issue today.
I have used my ssh key for few weeks.. and it worked fine. But today I can’t enter to my droplet.
I use ssh root@<droplet_ip> and every time get Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).
Even if I use ssh root@<droplet_ip> -i path/to/my/key it doesn’t work.
I checked everything. I checked that ssh-add -L gets my public key and file on droplet /root/.ssh/authorized_keys (through browser Console access) has the same value. Seems everything is ok. But it doesn’t work now. I don’t know why. Maybe the problem on my side… but what exactly?

Reply Report
  • drdexterua August 8, 2019

    Today I finally fixed it.
    I entered on droplet through Control Access via browser. And then changed on server file /etc/ssh/sshd_config next lines:
    1) PasswordAuthentication yes
    2) PermitRootLogin yes
    3) PubkeyAuthentication yes
    4) AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

    And then restarted sshd by : systemctl restart sshd

    Now it works.. I don’t know why it happened and is my solution safe for droplet.. but it works.

    Reply Report
yes52salt June 5, 2020

Hello,
Don’t forget modes and ownership in source and destination:

0700 user:user for .ssh
0644 user:user for .ssh/authorizedkeys and .ssh/knownhosts
0600 user:user for .ssh/id_rsa

It’s very important and if is not like that you may have this error

Reply Report
Submit an Answer

Related

Looking for something else?

Ask a new question Search for more help