Access denied SSH from windows to linux via putty

Question

I have a fresh install of openSUSE (tumbleweed) that I am trying to access via ssh from my Windows 7 box on my local home network. I can ping the boxes from each other successfully. I have edited the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on the openSUSE box and changed the port to 2223. I have added the line AllowUsers (mylogin) to ssh_config. PermitRootLogin is set to no. PasswordAuthentication is set to yes. I generated a public key on my windows machine and copied it to the openSUSE machine via a flash drive and added it to my .ssh/authorized_keys, but my understanding is this shouldn't be needed if I have PasswordAuthentication set to yes.

I have done these things after researching different solutions on the internet but I can't seem to find a solution to my problem: I can't login to my openSUSE box from Windows via Putty. I can connect to a session but I get 'Access Denied' everytime I attempt a login.

edit* I can login via ssh on my linux box from my linux box using

ssh openSUSEcomputername -p 2223

Solution

ugh I knew it was something simple... when I was logging in i used (username)@(servername). after disabling UsePAM and testing connection I found that the login attempt was automatically appending the servername to the end of the login I entered, giving the wrong login. i logged in using just the username and was successful. renabled UsePAM parameter and was successful.. solved. thanks to all that responded!!

Comments

[text]

Firewall/Apparmor problem? and/or windows firewall problem?

[MelBurslan]

Is something like iptables enabled by default while installing suse ?

[MelBurslan]

from windows, open up a command prompt and try running telnet suselinuxservername 2223 what do you see ?

[doval]

@MelBurslan the response to telnet is a blank screen that says SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2 and has a blinking cursor on the next line. If I don't type anything I get Connection to host lost after a couple minutes.

[MelBurslan]

Then you don't have a firewall problem. Try shutting down sshd and starting in debug mode for one single instance with sshd -p 2223 -D -ddd -e and try logging in from your windows machine, while watching the log screen on your linux box. It may give you the indication why it is giving access denied message.

[doval]

@MelBurslan I tried that command and I get the response 'sshd re-exec requires execution with an absolute path'. I am not sure what that means. I looked it up and I didn't find an answer that makes sense to me. Can you elaborate on what I'm not doing right or doing wrong?

[MelBurslan]

find the location of your ssh executable. Probably it will be something like /usr/sbin/sshd and replace sshd portion of the command above with that absolute path

[doval]

I stopped the service and started it with those parameters. I attempted a connection. The login failed and the entry in the sshd output that stood out was 'Failed keyboard-interactive/pam for invalid user (me)@(computer) from (ipaddress) port (port) ssh2'

[doval]

found another entriy.. 'PAM: User not known to the underlying authentication module for illegal user (me)@(computer) from (Ip address)'

[smw]

Where exactly did you put the AllowUsers line? Your text says in ssh_config (client side) but AFAIK it is only valid in sshd_config (server side). In either case, have you tried removing or commenting that out, at least until you get a basic connection working?

[doval]

@steeldriver I put the AllowUsers line in /etc/ssh/sshd_config. I just verified that, was a typo in the post. I tried logging in before I added that line with the same results. I added that line to see if it would resolve my issue, but it didn't.

[doval]

I researched the pam configuration file a bit, i don't know how to post the info in a comment. I also checked /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow and the user exists in those files, I don't know if other information is missing or not as I don't have experience with these files.

[doval]

@MelBurslan forgot to tag you on that last update

[doval]

ugh I knew it was something simple... when I was logging in i used (username)@(servername). after disabling PAM and testing connection I found that the login attempt was automatically appending the servername to the end of the login I entered, giving the wrong login. i logged in using just the username and was successful. renabled UsePAM parameter and was successful.. solved. thanks to all that responded!!