Disable password authentication for SSH [closed]

Answer 1

I followed these steps (for Mac).

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config change

#ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes
#PasswordAuthentication yes

to

ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
PasswordAuthentication no

Now generate the RSA key:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -P '' -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

(For me an RSA key worked. A DSA key did not work.)

A private key will be generated in ~/.ssh/id_rsa along with ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (public key).

Now move to the .ssh folder: cd ~/.ssh

Enter rm -rf authorized_keys (sometimes multiple keys lead to an error).

Enter vi authorized_keys

Enter :wq to save this empty file

Enter cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Restart the SSH:

sudo launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd
sudo launchctl start com.openssh.sshd

Answer 2

Run

service ssh restart

instead of

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

This might work.

Answer 3

Here's a script to do this automatically

# Only allow key based logins
sed -n 'H;${x;s/\#PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/;p;}' /etc/ssh/sshd_config > tmp_sshd_config
cat tmp_sshd_config > /etc/ssh/sshd_config
rm tmp_sshd_config

Answer 4

The one-liner to disable SSH password authentication:

sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config && service ssh restart

Answer 5

In file /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Change to no to disable tunnelled clear text passwords
#PasswordAuthentication no

Uncomment the second line, and, if needed, change yes to no.

Then run

service ssh restart