okurka12/disable-password-auth.md

Last active August 10, 2025 15:13

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Disable SSH password authentication on Debian

Raw

Enable key-only SSH authentication

Caution

Only do this AFTER you verified you can authenticate with you SSH key.

Open the config file:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Uncomment and edit these two lines

PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

Restart SSH service

sudo systemctl restart ssh

Quick check

grep -E "^\s*((PasswordAuthentication)|(PubkeyAuthentication))" /etc/ssh/sshd_config