SSH Permission denied (publickey)

Hi,

I try to connect to my staging host from a new PC. I have no way to use my old PC.

I try following commands with no success:

ssh root/admin@xxx.com
ssh-copy-id root/admin@xxx.com

Always the same error:
Permission denied (publickey).

Here is log of SSH connection:
OpenSSH_7.5p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2l 25 May 2017
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Connecting to xxx [xxx] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.5
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_7.4p1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_7.4p1 pat OpenSSH* compat 0x04000000
debug1: Authenticating to xxx:22 as ‘root’
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: algorithm: curve25519-sha256@libssh.org
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ssh-ed25519
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com MAC: compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com MAC: compression: none
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: ssh-ed25519 SHA256
debug1: Host xxx’ is known and matches the ED25519 host key.
debug1: Found key in /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts:4
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO received
debug1: kex_input_ext_info: server-sig-algs=<ssh-ed25519,ssh-rsa,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521>
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Trying private key: /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug1: Trying private key: /c/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

How can I access to my staging host? Have you got an idea?

Thanks!

If you have the original ssh keys accessible somewhere, be sure they are loaded in your new machine’s ssh agent, then try again (windows notes, general notes).

If you no longer have the ssh keys, perhaps you granted access to other users/colleagues (i.e., added their public keys) and one of them could add your new public key to the server for you (e.g., add it to keys in this users list and reprovision).

Or, you could perhaps use your VPS provider’s web console to log in to the server and manually add your public key to /home/admin/.ssh/authorized_keys. For example, if your server is with Digital Ocean you could use the web interface and go to droplet > access > launch console then log in with the use user admin and the admin_user password from vault_users in your group_vars/staging/vault.yml file. If that isn’t working, you may have to go to droplet > access > reset root password – then it will email you a new password for root, like in the first half of steps outlined at Help with users on secured droplet

2 Likes

Thanks!

I did not know I could access the console from my VPS provider! It works!

Good night :slight_smile:

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