How to disable root login and enable key authentication on Dedicated server?

How to disable root login and enable key authentication on Dedicated server?

Refer following steps to disable direct root login.

1. SSH into your server as root user.

2. Open file sshd_config in your favorite editor

pico /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Find the line

Protocol 2, 1

4. Uncomment line and change it to look like

Protocol 2

5. Now find the line
PermitRootLogin yes

6. And Uncomment libe and make it look like as
PermitRootLogin no

7. Save the file sshd_config file,

8. Restart SSH service
/etc/rc.d/init.d/sshd restart

Once root login disabled on server generate authentication key by using following steps.

1. Add user for example we will add user support

useradd support

2.Assigne user support in wheel group.

usermod -G wheel support

3. Set correct permission for sudoers files.

chmod 644 /etc/sudoers

4. Now open sudoers file and set followings line in sudoers file.

pico /etc/sudoers

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Same thing without a password
%wheel        ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: ALL

5. Make sure that sudo file binery file is secure.

chmod 4111 /usr/bin/sudo

If you are not sure about sudo binery path then run commamd to confirm the path.

which sudo

6.Now create .ssh directory in support users home directory.

cd /home/support

mkdir .ssh

7. Now generate the key by using PuTTYgen software and save the key on your local machine as support.ppk file.

8. Create authorized_keys file in .ssh directory and copy content from file support.ppk to authorized_keys file.

9. Confirm permission and ownership for files.

cd /home

ll | grep support

The ownership shuold be

drwx——    7 support support          4096 Jul 10 03:44 support

cd /home/support

ll | grep .ssh

drwxr-xr-x    2 root   root        4096 Jul 12  3:34 .ssh/

ll .ssh

The ownership shoud be

drwxr-xr-x 2 root    root    4096 Jul 12 03:22 ./
drwx—— 7 support support 4096 Jul 12 03:44 ../
-rw-r–r– 1 root    root    224  Jul 12 03:40 authorized_keys

Note : Do not close current Shell until you are able to access server with the support.ppk key.

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