How to ssh into ec2 instance running centos as a newly created user?

Question

I am able to ssh into an ec2 instance as the root user using the private key .pem that was generated when I created the instance.

$ ssh -i Desktop/key.pem root@123.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

I then created a new user

$ useradd dummy

When I run the following command to sign in as the dummy user

$ ssh -i Desktop/key.pem dummy@123.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

I get the following error

Permission denied

How do I ssh into the new instance as the dummy user?

GeoSword · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-11T21:35:39.287

3

As Roman points out, you need to copy the public part of your key (usually ending .pub) to this file: /home/dummy/.ssh/authorized_keys:

scp id_rsa.pub root@123.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com:/home/dummy/.ssh/authorized_keys

Note, youll probably have to create the .ssh folder in /home/dummy first.

Then make sure the authorized_keys file has the correct permissions:

chmod 600 /home/dummy/.ssh/authorized_keys

Also, just to be safe, set the Selinux context too:

restorecon /home/dummy/.ssh/authorized_keys

edited Jul 11 '13 at 21:35

answered Jul 08 '13 at 19:44

GeoSword

I am still getting the same error. I followed your instructions exactly. **EDIT** Setting the permissions to 700 on .ssh on the remote server resolved it. – user784637 Jul 08 '13 at 21:12
Had the exact same problem today, restorecon saved me. Thanks! – Wiesław Herr Jan 30 '15 at 13:20

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 08 '13 at 18:54

1

You need to add your generated key to the newly created user's authorized_keys.

answered Jul 08 '13 at 18:54

Roman

2 Answers2