Troubleshooting SSH Permission Denied Error in cPanel

Secure Shell(SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. SSH is using TCP/IP 22 port by default. You can change SSH port at any time as you wish.  Commonly we use SSH for remote administration via server command line as root or any other user. In some strange situations, you may have the problem with SSH connection in cPanel servers. If you are getting the following error while accessing the server via SSH as a root user, here is the solution.

Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic)

The issue is due to the Password authentication because this was disabled on the server.

If you don’t have access to THE server via SSH, you can simply solve this issue via WHM.

1) Login to WHM as a root user.

2) Go to the “Security Center”.

3) Click on “Enable Password Auth” to enable Password authentication. If it is already enabled, re-enable it to resolve this issue and restart SSHD service.

4) The sshd service will be restarted automatically when you click on “Enable Password Auth”.

5) If sshd is not restarted automatically, go to Home >> Restart Services >> SSH Server (OpenSSH).

If you need any further help, please do reach our support department.