{"id":189,"date":"2015-04-27T13:26:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T13:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betakb.veeble.org\/?p=189"},"modified":"2025-04-04T15:47:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T10:17:22","slug":"disable-direct-root-login-via-ssh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/disable-direct-root-login-via-ssh\/","title":{"rendered":"Disable direct root login via SSH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please follow the given steps to disable direct ssh to the server via the shell prompt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEP 1:<\/b> Create a user and add it to the wheel group<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SSH into your server as root and follow the below commands to create a user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$ groupadd new\n$ useradd new -gnew\n$ passwd new\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You can create any user instead of “new”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
STEP 2:<\/b> Add the user to the wheel group<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can add the user at the end of the ‘group’ file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ grep wheel \/etc\/group\nwheel:x:10:root\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Add the user ‘new’:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wheel:x:10:root,new\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
For CPanel Servers, do the following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Log into your WHM and click on “Manage Wheel Group Users”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Select the user (Here it is “new”) and click \u2018Add to group\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Before disabling the root access, check if the user can log in and su \u2013 to gain root privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SSH into your server as ‘new’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Login as: new\nPassword : enteryouruserpasswordhere\nsu \u2013\npassword: enter root password here\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
STEP 3:<\/b> Disable Direct Root Login<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Copy and paste this line to edit the file for SSH logins<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ vi \/etc\/ssh\/sshd_config\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
2. Find the line<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protocol 2, 1 \n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
3. Uncomment it (Remove #) and change it to look like<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protocol 2\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
4. Next, find the line<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PermitRootLogin yes \n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
5. Uncomment it (Remove #) and make it look like PermitRootLogin no<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Save the file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, no one will be able to log in to root without first logging in as ‘new’ and ‘su -‘ to root.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Please follow the given steps to disable direct ssh to the server via the shell prompt. STEP 1: Create a user and add it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH.jpg",1366,768,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH.jpg",1366,768,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Disable-direct-root-login-via-SSH.jpg",1366,768,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Vipin Raj","author_link":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/author\/vipin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Please follow the given steps to disable direct ssh to the server via the shell prompt. STEP 1: Create a user and add it […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8485,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/8485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veeble.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}