Setting PasswordAuthentication to yes, is not the best way to go , is not as secure as using private and public keys for authentication !
First make sure that that you have the fallowing permissions set, on the server side.
First check your home dir (SERVER SIDE)
[vini@random ~]$ ls -ld ~
drwx------. 3 vini vini 127 Nov 23 15:29 /home/vini
if it is not like this, run
chmod 0700 /home/your_home
Now check .ssh folder
[vini@random ~]$ ls -ld /home/vini/.ssh/
drwx------. 2 vini vini 29 Nov 23 15:28 /home/vini/.ssh/
if it is not looking like this, run
chmod 0700 /home/your_home/.ssh
now make sure that authorized_keys
looks like this
[vini@venon ~]$ ls -ld /home/vini/.ssh/authorized_keys
-rw-------. 1 vini vini 393 Nov 23 15:28 /home/vini/.ssh/authorized_keys
or just run
chmod 0600 /home/your_home/.ssh/authorized_keys
After that go to /etc/ssh/sshd_config
For best security set
PermitRootLogin no
PubkeyAuthentication yes
keep as yes
for testing purposes
PasswordAuthentication yes
Make sure that
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
Comment those lines for GSSAPI
# #GSSAPIAuthentication yes
# #GSSAPICleanupCredentials no
Make sure that is set to UsePAM yes
UsePAM yes
now restart sshd service
systemctl restart sshd
on the client side
cd /home/your_home/.ssh
generate new keys; setting a password is optional but is a good idea
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
copy pub key to your server
ssh-copy-id -i id_rsa.pub user_name@server_ip
start ssh agent
eval $(ssh-agent)
ssh-add /home/user/.ssh/your_private_key
now your are good to go !
ssh user_name@server_ip
if everything works just fine
make a backup of your private key and then deny PasswordAuthentication
PasswordAuthentication no
Restart you server
now anyone trying to ssh into your server, without your keys should get
vini@random: Permission denied (publickey).
keep script kids away from your business, and good luck