Bug#726661: Does not permit login as root from version 1:6.2p2-6

["Daniel Richard G." <skunk@iSKUNK.ORG>]

> Hope these steps help saving time the next one googling for "debian
> jessie enable root ssh" to workaround this bug ;)

Thank you Paul, indeed it helped me, as I too ran into this issue in a
fresh Jessie install. I didn't have to downgrade OpenSSH, however, just
edit PermitRootLogin as you did.

I found after the fact that this change is documented in openssh-
server/README.Debian.gz, under the "PermitRootLogin" header. It was
confusing enough to find that the sshd configuration was the issue, when
/var/log/auth.log suggested pam_unix was at fault:

    Apr 25 17:36:55 linux-image sshd[1573]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=10.0.2.2  user=root
    Apr 25 17:36:57 linux-image sshd[1573]: Failed password for root from 10.0.2.2 port 35103 ssh2
    Apr 25 17:37:01 linux-image sshd[1573]: Failed password for root from 10.0.2.2 port 35103 ssh2
    Apr 25 17:37:05 linux-image sshd[1573]: Failed password for root from 10.0.2.2 port 35103 ssh2
    Apr 25 17:37:05 linux-image sshd[1573]: Connection closed by 10.0.2.2 [preauth]
    Apr 25 17:37:05 linux-image sshd[1573]: PAM 2 more authentication failures; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=10.0.2.2  user=root

Anyway, the change comes from Debian bug #298138, which lay dormant for
over nine years before being wrapped up this past March.


--Daniel


-- 
Daniel Richard G. || skunk@iSKUNK.ORG
My ASCII-art .sig got a bad case of Times New Roman.