How to Disable SSH Root Login in Linux

By default, every Linux system has a root user that has access to all commands, files & folders. If someone gets access to root user, then they can misuse your system. So it is important to disable SSH root login in Linux. In this article, we will look at how to do this.

How to Disable SSH Root Login in Linux

Here are the steps to disable SSH root login in Linux.

1. Open SSH configuration

Open terminal and run the following command to open SSH configuration file.

$ sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

2. Disable SSH Root Login

Look for the following line

PermitRootLogin yes

Replace it with the following line

PermitRootLogin no

Save and close the file.

3. Restart SSH server

Restart SSH Service to apply changes.

Ubuntu/Debian

$ sudo service ssh restart

Redhat/CentOS/Fedora

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd

That’s it. Now root user will not be able to log into SSH.

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Sreeram Sreenivasan

Sreeram has more than 10 years of experience in web development, Python, Linux, SQL and database programming.

How to Disable SSH Root Login in Linux