SSH Still Asks for Password with Public Key Setup

Question

I want to ssh to my linux hosting server without having to enter the password. After hours of research I believe the following steps are correct, but I still get prompted for a password every time

Windows Version 20H2 10.0.19042

Generate Key and add to service-agent
ssh-keygen
keys in Users/$USERNAME/id_rsa id_rsa.pub
ssh-add id_rsa

Transfer Public Key to hosting server
scp -P 1111 id_rsa.pub user@myhost.com:~/.ssh

Set permission on host folders from
chmod 700 ~/
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

I have not found any other necessary steps, but I still get prompted for a password. Any idea of a solution?

Answer 1

Hi,
Since I'm not familiar with SSH, I did some research and found some similar threads, and I hope them could help at your side:
Why am I still getting a password prompt with ssh with public key authentication?
ssh prompts for password despite .ssh/authorized_keys
Still prompted for a password after adding SSH public key to a server

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Mico Mi

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Answer 2

The first misyake I see is that you copy the public key of the host to remote server using the same name:
scp -P 1111 id_rsa.pub user@myhost.com:~/.ssh
You chould copy only if there is only one host to allow to ssh to the server. Ayway you should use a different name:
scp -P 1111 id_rsa.pub user@myhost.com:~/.ssh/authorized_keys

P.S.
More appropriate is to append all public keys of the hosts to be allowed to ssh to the same server.

Answer 3

Hi,

All you have to do is go to the config file and change the directory file that windows sshd is looking for.

My file was located in the %ProgramData% folder and then in the ssh folder, there is a config file.

Change the folder and filename to match ".ssh/authorized_keys" if you keep your file name default for "authorized keys" in the .ssh folder.

I fixed mine after searching all over smh.