SSH to docker container is not working

Question

I'm running a Discourse forum software container in an Ubuntu Server, I was able to login to container using the command.

sudo docker exec -it app bash

And then I've setup password for the root user, but the ssh is not working as expected always getting incorrect password.

SSH debug log

Set /proc/self/oom_score_adj to 0
debug1: rexec start in 5 out 5 newsock 5 pipe 7 sock 8
debug1: inetd sockets after dupping: 3, 3
Connection from ::1 port 45924 on ::1 port 22
debug1: Client protocol version 2.0; client software version OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2
debug1: permanently_set_uid: 105/65534 [preauth]
debug1: list_hostkey_types: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ssh-ed25519 [preauth]
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent [preauth]
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received [preauth]
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr [email protected] none [preauth]
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr [email protected] none [preauth]
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT [preauth]
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent [preauth]
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS [preauth]
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received [preauth]
debug1: KEX done [preauth]
debug1: userauth-request for user root service ssh-connection method none [preauth]
debug1: attempt 0 failures 0 [preauth]
debug1: PAM: initializing for "root"
debug1: PAM: setting PAM_RHOST to "localhost"
debug1: PAM: setting PAM_TTY to "ssh"
debug1: userauth-request for user root service ssh-connection method password [preauth]
debug1: attempt 1 failures 0 [preauth]
pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=localhost  user=root
debug1: PAM: password authentication failed for root: Authentication failure
Failed password for root from ::1 port 45924 ssh2
Excess permission or bad ownership on file /var/log/btmp
Connection closed by ::1 [preauth]
debug1: do_cleanup [preauth]
debug1: monitor_read_log: child log fd closed
debug1: do_cleanup
debug1: PAM: cleanup
debug1: Killing privsep child 32712

Please advise.

Solution

The issue is fixed now.

seems to be an issue with Discourse SSH container configuration,

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin without-password

I've changed it to

PermitRootLogin yes

#PermitRootLogin without-password

That fixed the issue.

Comments

[Augustin]

The ssh was already enabled the container, its a container running Discourse forum software, what I did was change the password for root user. root@forum:/# id uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root) root@forum:/# passwd Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: passwd: password updated successfully root@forum:/# ssh localhost root@localhost's password: Permission denied, please try again. root@localhost's password:

[Klaatu von Schlacker]

For testing sake, what happens if you try to ssh in as a non-root user?

[Augustin]

Already tried restarting the ssh service and changing password, still no luck.