Tailing /var/log/secure on the target machine is a lot more useful :
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sudo tail -f /var/log/secure Sep 14 01:26:31 new-server sshd[22107]: Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for directory /home/dave/.ssh Sep 14 01:26:46 new-server sshd[22108]: Connection closed by 98.76.54.32 |
Finally we’re getting somewhere – bad ownership or modes for directory /home/dave/.ssh.
SSH doesn’t like it if your home or ~/.ssh directories have group write permissions. Your home directory should be writable only by you, ~/.ssh should be 700, and authorized_keys should be 600 :
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chmod g-w /home/your_user chmod 700 /home/your_user/.ssh chmod 600 /home/your_user/.ssh/authorized_keys |
You can also get around this by adding StrictModes off to your ssh_config file, but I’d advise against it – fixing permissions is the way to go.