Adding public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys does n

Question

I added the public ssh key to the authorized_keys file. ssh localhost should log me in without asking for the password.

I did that and tried typing ssh localhost, but it still asks me to type in the password. Is there any other setting that I have to go through to make it work?

I have followed instruction for changing permissions:

Below is the result if I do ssh -v localhost

debug1: Reading configuration data /home/john/.ssh/config
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to localhost [127.0.0.1] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/john/.ssh/identity type 1
debug1: identity file /home/john/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/john/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_4.7p1 Debian-8ubuntu3
debug1: match: OpenSSH_4.7p1 Debian-8ubuntu3 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_4.7p1 Debian-8ubuntu3
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host 'localhost' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/john/.ssh/known_hosts:12
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering public key: /home/john/.ssh/identity
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 149
debug1: PEM_read_PrivateKey failed
debug1: read PEM private key done: type <unknown>

Then it asks for passphase after the above log. Why isn't it logging me in without a password?

Answer 1

this solves my problem

ssh-agent bash

ssh-add

Answer 2

I have the home directory in a non-standard location and in sshd logs I have this line:

Could not open authorized keys '/data/home/user1/.ssh/authorized_keys': Permission denied

even if all permissions were just fine (see the other answers).

I have found a solution here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=25813191&sid=0876f069ec2aa5fdcd691a2e2e7242c2#p25813191

In my particular case:

• added a new line in /etc/selinux/targeted/contexts/files/file_contexts.homedirs:

  • this is the original line for regular home directories:

    /home/[^/]*/\.ssh(/.*)? unconfined_u:object_r:ssh_home_t:s0

  • this is my new line:

    /data/home/[^/]*/\.ssh(/.*)? unconfined_u:object_r:ssh_home_t:s0

• followed by a restorecon -r /data/ and a sshd restart

Answer 3

It seems like a permission problem. Usually it happens if the permission of some file/directory is not correctly set up. In most case they are ~/.ssh and ~/.ssh/*. In my case they are /home/xxx.

You can changing the log level of sshd by modifying /etc/ssh/sshd_config(search LogLevel, set it to DEBUG), then check the output in /var/log/auth.log to see what happened exactly.