Set-up SSHD to handle multiple key pairs

Question

I am trying to set up my sshd to accept users that do not have a system user account. My approach is to use DSA public/private key pairs.

1. I generated a key pair: $ ssh-keygen -t dsa
2. I copied id_dsa.pub to the server machine where sshd runs.
3. I appended the line from id_dsa.pub to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of the single existing system user account I will use for every 'external' user.
4. I tried to ssh as the 'external' user into the machine where I set-up the authorized_keys and failed miserably.

What am I missing here?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Probably permissions.

$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh
$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Answer 2

Since you will only use puclic key authentication, modify the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file in the server machine as follows:

PubkeyAuthentication yes
HostbasedAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
GSSAPIAuthentication no
PasswordAuthentication no

Restart the sshd daemon and you should be fine.