sshd not accepting authorized keys

Moriah

I have a machine that has worked with remote ssh logins using authorized keys for many years. all of a sudden, about 2 weeks ago, it stopped accepting remote logins unless a password was entered from the ssh prompt of the remote logging in machine. This behavior is observed from several different machines because they run scripts on cron to update information on the misbehaving machine. I have tried re-entering the known-hosts information but to no avail. I have verified that the authorized keys information looks correct.

Any idea what could be wrong. I even rebooted the affected machine thinking a random memory error could be the fault, but still no joy.
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2022 12:40 pm Post subject:

Moriah,

toralf · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2022 2:13 pm Post subject:

And don't forget to double check the permissions of .ssh/ - should be 0700.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21637

In at least some cases, the server's log will report if it considered and rejected an authorized_keys file. Check your server logs for any complaints about bad configuration for the affected user.

sshd_config can direct the server not to allow public key authentication. Perhaps a package update and subsequent bad configuration file merge changed it to allow only passwords.