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I successfully added a rsa key my root account. since I don't want everything in my root acc, I created a new user. but for some how, I keep getting "server refuses our keys" message :S

I did following command with my root acc:

adduser kossel usermod -a -G sudo kossel groups kossel mkdir /home/kossel/.ssh vi /home/kossel/.ssh/authorized_keys //I pasted the key in this format "ssh-rsa xxxxxxxxxxxxxx==" for putty openSSH compatibility reason chown -R kossel:kossel /home/kossel/.ssh chmod 700 /home/kossel/.ssh chmod 600 /home/kossel/.ssh/authorized_keys

am I missing something?

update: answering comments: I have successfully done modifying the puttygen public key to suit openSSH, because my root acc is working.

I checked /var/log/auth.log the only message i got is:

Sep 12 15:59:40 9port sshd[7714]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user kossel Sep 12 15:59:52 9port sshd[7739]: reverse mapping checking getaddrinfo for dsl-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-dyn.prod-ISPDOMAIN.com [my_ip_address] failed - POSSIBLE BREAK-IN ATTEMPT!

ps: and I also got some spam user already trying to login?? sorry I just started to use vps yesterday.

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  • 1. Is it (your public key) all one line? 2. Post your /var/log/auth.log? Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 15:50
  • it looks like the format of keys is not recognized by your SSH server... I've heard something about Putty SSH keys which need to be converted to an appropriate format, although I have never had such trouble with my putty clients/linux servers. I have then never done any change from putty keys for openssh compaibility. Can you post your /var/log/auth.log while attempting to perform a connection? One more point: usually the format is ssh-rsa xxxx user@machine, the '==' are part of the key Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 15:52
  • Ah! And maybe the key length is not enough for your ssh server. I would advise never less than 1024 bits. Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 15:53
  • I have successfully done modifying the puttygen public key to suit openSSH --> how did you edit your public key for compatibility with ssh-keygen? Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:08
  • following this: walkernews.net/2009/03/22/…, basically just trim the key into one line Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:12

1 Answer 1

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Try copying your original public key normally (that generated by puttygen), and then convert it to an OpenSSH compatible format:

ssh-keygen -i -f puttygen.ppk > ssh-keygen.pub

UPDATE

puttygen supports exporting your key to an OpenSSH format, try this:

enter image description here

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  • I got "uudecode failed." message O_o Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:19
  • sounds like it is already in OpenSSH format or your public key has DOS-style line break. Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:25
  • @Kossel: updated my question. Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:33
  • does the public key has to be some specific name like "Authorized keys" or it can be any just under ~/.ssh folder? Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:40
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    You mean on the server? If so, it must be authorized_keys. Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:43

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