# ssh Login issue has me seeing red (permission denied)



## mrhobbeys (Dec 25, 2012)

When trying to login I get an error:


```
Permission denied (publickey,keyboard-interactive).
```

This was trying any user...

I went on-site and tried to login and got incorrect password error. I reset the password for my user and root using single user mode, but I am still getting the same error.... It is like my passwords have been changed and somehow after I changed them, they seem to have "changed again". Or I am having the some ssh error.... 

When I was looking over the logs on-site the only thing that seemed out of place was a strange message about "listening for telnet on 0.0.0.0 port 22" and another about "ssh login port 55008" -This second one also had my IP associated...

How do I start to figure out the nature of problem (preferably via ssh)? And FWIW I planned on giving the logs a closer look once I got home where I could sit down and ssh in...


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## kpa (Dec 25, 2012)

Nothing in /var/log/auth.log ? See what the ssh(1) client says if you use the -v flag for more verbose output.

I would check the permissions on the home directory of the user on the server, write permissions in the wrong places causes sshd(8) to consider the environment unsafe and reject the connection.


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## SirDice (Dec 27, 2012)

And keep in mind that root is not allowed to login via ssh by default (and you should keep it that way).


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## wblock@ (Dec 27, 2012)

That telnet message has a bad feeling to it.


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## frijsdijk (Dec 28, 2012)

On the server: check /var/log/messages /var/log/auth.log /var/log/security, maybe even /var/log/debug
On the client: check '*telnet <server> 22*', and do '*ssh -vvvvv <user>@<server>*'


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