Restricting SSH access by user or group

Depending on the role of your system and which user accounts are configured on it, you may not want all of its registered users to have access through SSH. This recipe shows you how to configure the SSH server to restrict remote user access by explicitly granting or denying the users access.

Getting ready

This recipe requires a CentOS system running the OpenSSH server. Administrative privileges are also required, either by logging in with the root account or through the use of sudo.

How to do it...

Follow these steps to restrict users' SSH access:

  1. Open the SSH server's configuration file with your text editor:
    vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  2. Find the PermitEmptyPasswords option. Uncomment it and set its value to no

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