SSH Won't login permission denied (publickey,password)

February 18, 2017 71.1k views
Nginx Ubuntu 16.04
lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30
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lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30

I've tried all the tutorials on DO how to set up SSH but nothing will let me get past the access denied. I set it up originally and wanted to add another user, so I followed a tutorial on that, now I cant login with either...
Is there a way to reset ssh and start over without damaging the server (being online) as there is a website connected that needs not be interrupted.

Thank you any help is appreciated...

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7 Answers
jtittle1 February 18, 2017

@lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30

Thanks!

Ok, so let's start with not able to login with either user. If you can't login to SSH, the only other way to login to your Droplet is using console, which you'd access by clicking on the name of the droplet and then clicking on 'Access' and then 'Launch Console'.

To login to console, you'll need your root user password. If you never received a password and your Droplet is setup with SSH Keys only, there's very little that can be done at this point, unfortunately, as you can't use SSH Keys to login to the console.

If you can login to console, you can re-enable PasswordAuthentication by modifying:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

and changing:

PasswordAuthentication no

to 

PasswordAuthentication yes

and then restarting SSHD:

service sshd restart

You could then reset passwords using passwd, such as:

passwd username

Getting you back in is what's important right now. We can then work on setting up SSH Keys after though the best way to setup SSH Keys is actually to deploy them when you deploy your Droplet (as this makes it easier). You could then create a new user and we can walk through the setup,

If you can't login to console, short of submitting a support ticket and seeing if they can help get you back in, you would effectively be locked out and would need to deploy a new Droplet.

When you start tinkering with SSH and a Firewall, you have to be very careful.

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  • pberger October 18, 2017

    Worked for me by still having user available and then sudoing my way through these recs from jtittle1.

    I only use passwords from now on...basta! And thanks :)

jtittle1 February 18, 2017

@lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30

Which guide(s) did you follow? Let's start there so we're on the same page and we can work from there :-).

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lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30 February 18, 2017
How To Set Up SSH Keys
by Etel Sverdlov
SSH keys provide a more secure way of logging into a virtual private server with SSH than using a password alone. With SSH keys, users can log into a server without a password. This tutorial explains how to generate, use, and upload an SSH Key Pair.
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lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30 February 18, 2017

@jtittle
Thank you so far so good,
I have access to COnsole and root as well. I followed the steps you have outlined. Tried for kicks to ssh from local machine.. Still permission denied :/

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borao February 19, 2017 
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh <user>@<hostname> 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys && echo "Key copied"'

That worked for me.

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  • lassee94933ef12b990f92bb30 February 19, 2017

    do i type that in the terminal on my local computer or on the console? I can't get through with ssh user@host from local i keep getting permission denied...

    • borao February 20, 2017

      I replied below, don't know if it messaged you, "Local. You need to replace user with root and host with your server's IP."

borao February 19, 2017

Local. You need to replace user with root and host with your server's IP.

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anushanth June 3, 2017

If you can able to log into the web console re-enable the following parameters by modifying /etc/ssh/sshd_config

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin yes
PasswordAuthentication yes
UseLogin yes

Then restart.

sudo systemctl reload sshd

 sudo service ssh restart

Hope it will help you :)

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