Hi, Public key authentication seems to work for one account but does NOT work (prompts for password) for another account. Why might this be? I have a problem with public key authentication. This all happens on the same server ("server1") which runs Solaris 10 and OpenSSH 5.3p1. There are two scenarios. Neither scenario should prompt for password because I added "jon" account's public key into the .ssh/authorized_keys file's for both the ndio account and the jon2 account. However, Scenario 1 prompts for password (problem) and Scenario 2 does NOT prompt for password (good). Scenario 1 -- prompts for password (problem) Start as user "jon". Run ssh -v -v -v -Y ndio@server1 this prompts for password Scenario 2 -- does NOT prompt for password (good) Start as user "jon". Run ssh -v -v -v -Y jon2@server1 Goes right to command prompt for user jon2 Below is debug output for both cases. It is clear that public key authentication worked for scenario 2 and that it did NOT work for scenario 1 But what could be the cause of the problem for scenario 1? ------------------------------------------------------------ Scenario1 - Problem (prompts for password) <snip> These messages are identical to the "success" case below.. debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Trying private key: /export/home/jon/.ssh/identity debug3: no such identity: /export/home/jon/.ssh/identity debug1: Offering public key: /export/home/jon/.ssh/id_rsa debug3: send_pubkey_test debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply debug3: Wrote 368 bytes for a total of 1477 This is where messages become different than the success case below... Note that NO messages are left out here. debug3: Wrote 368 ..... msg is followed by the debug1: Authentications that can continue .... msg. debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive debug1: Trying private key: /export/home/jon/.ssh/id_dsa debug3: no such identity: /export/home/jon/.ssh/id_dsa debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method debug3: authmethod_lookup keyboard-interactive debug3: remaining preferred: password debug3: authmethod_is_enabled keyboard-interactive ---------------------------------------------------------- Scenario 2 - Good (No prompt for password) These messages are identical to the failure case above.. <snip> debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Trying private key: /export/home/jon/.ssh/identity debug3: no such identity: /export/home/jon/.ssh/identity debug1: Offering public key: /export/home/jon/.ssh/id_rsa debug3: send_pubkey_test debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply debug3: Wrote 368 bytes for a total of 1477 This is where messages become different than the failure case above. Note that NO messages are left out here. debug3: Wrote 368 ..... msg is followed by the debug1: Server accepts key: ... msg. debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 277 debug2: input_userauth_pk_ok: fp a2:ee:ea:88:cd:8e:c3:c9:c5:63:dd:30:ea:55:93:db debug3: sign_and_send_pubkey debug1: read PEM private key done: type RSA debug3: Wrote 640 bytes for a total of 2117 debug1: Authentication succeeded (publickey). debug1: channel 0: new [client-session] debug3: ssh_session2_open: channel_new: 0 debug2: channel 0: send open debug1: Requesting no-more-sessions@xxxxxxxxxxx debug1: Entering interactive session. <snip> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End