SSH hosts.deny and hosts.allow

iptablesrootssh

I have this content in hosts.deny (with a new line at the end):

#
# hosts.deny    This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#       *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#       by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
# The portmap line is redundant, but it is left to remind you that
# the new secure portmap uses hosts.deny and hosts.allow.  In particular
# you should know that NFS uses portmap!

sshd : ALL

And this in hosts.allow:

#
# hosts.allow   This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#       allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#       by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#

sshd: our.ip.add.ress: allow

Then, we executed this piece of code to restart SSH:

/etc/init.d/sshd restart

And again, here is a new line at the end. But, we can still reach the SSH service from another server and attempt to login. What are we doing wrong?

Best Answer

Your /etc/hosts.deny, I think you have a syntax error. There shouldn't be be a space between "sshd" and the colon. So, it should read:

sshd: ALL

On the "allow" side, I have lines like:

sshd: 192.168.1.1

There's no trailing text after the IP address.

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If you already have an SSH key, you can skip this step… Just hit Enter for the key and both passphrases:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Copy your keys to the target server:

$ ssh-copy-id id@server
id@server's password:

Now try logging into the machine, with ssh 'id@server', and check-in:

.ssh/authorized_keys

Note: If you don't have .ssh dir and authorized_keys file, you need to create it first

to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.

Finally, check to log in…

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id@server:~$

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As others have noted below, it could be the file owner. (upvote them!)

chown $USER ~/.ssh/config

If your whole folder has invalid permissions here's a table of possible permissions:

Path	Permission
.ssh directory (code)	0700 (drwx------)
private keys (ex: `id_rsa`) (code)	0600 (-rw-------)
`config`	0600 (-rw-------)
public keys (*.pub ex: `id_rsa.pub`)	0644 (-rw-r--r--)
`authorized_keys` (code)	0644 (-rw-r--r--)
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openssh check-perm.c
openssh readconf.c
openssh ssh_user_config fix_authorized_keys_perms

Best Answer

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