[SOLVED] SSH PubkeyAuthentication not working

Troubleshooting
1

Just installed DietPie on my rpi 3.
I followed documentation switching from dropbear to openssh in the first boot installation.

Now I want disable password logins on ssh, and I’ve uploaded my pub key (already generated) creating authorized_keys file under ./ssh folder.

Then chmod 600 and chown dietpi:dietpi on the authorized_keys file.
Restarted sshd service.

Attempting to ssh with private key I get "‘Server refused our key’’ and I’m, able to login with password only.

2

Are you sure you are using the correct private key on your SSH client?

3

Yes, I’m using the same pair of keys that was working on the previous raspbian os lite installation.

4

did you already tried following already?

sudo chmod 700 /home/dietpi/.ssh
sudo chmod 600 /home/dietpi/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown dietpi:dietpi /home/dietpi/.ssh/authorized_keys

as well, you are sure the key has been copied correctly into /home/dietpi/.ssh/authorized_keys (assuming you login as user dietpi)?

1 Like
5

Solved.
Issue was the format of the pubkey in the authorized_keys file.

I changed from:

---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----
Comment: "blablabla"
AAAADAQABAAABA...............
---- END SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----

To (in one line):
ssh-rsa AAAADAQABAAABA............... user@hostname

6

yes correct, it needs to a one-liner. :+1: