CentOS Create User With No Password, Only Public Key Auth

Question

How can I create a user on CentOS 5.6, which cannot login with a password. I.E. they can only login and SSH using public key authentication.

 useradd myuser -d /their-home-dir

Will that do it, without calling passwd?

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 01 '11 at 20:33

10

Yes, that will do it but you should add some keys to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of course.

answered Sep 01 '11 at 20:33

Alex

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '11 at 21:01

3

If you want to enforce only pubkey auth, then you need to modify your /etc/ssh/sshd_config , and set

PasswordAuthentication no

answered Sep 01 '11 at 21:01

anastrophe

I've done this, and `root` user can get in without password, but another sudo/wheel user cannot. Despite putting a key in the command, that user still needs a password. Can I disable a password and enable ONLY key login for that other sudo/wheel user too? – PKHunter Aug 14 '17 at 19:21

2 Answers2