🟠 High   ⏱ 5–30 min  Last verified: 19 May 2026
Affected versions: FreeBSD 13

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents
  1. Symptom & Impact
  2. Environment & Reproduction
  3. Root Cause Analysis
  4. Quick Triage
  5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
  6. Solution – Primary Fix
  7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
  8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
  9. Rollback Plan
  10. Prevention & Hardening
  11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
  12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

On FreeBSD 13, sshd may fail to come up at boot when rc.conf flags are missing or host keys are invalid.

Environment & Reproduction

Remote SSH connections time out, and service status shows sshd not running after restart or reboot.

Root Cause Analysis

Common causes include sshd_enable not set in /etc/rc.conf, malformed sshd_config, or stale key permissions.

Quick Triage

Run service sshd onestatus, service sshd checkconfig, and tail -n 100 /var/log/auth.log to isolate the fault.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Confirm current shell diagnostics and baseline state before edits. image_ref=0

Illustrative mockup for freebsd-13 — terminal_or_shell
Checking sshd and rc system status from a FreeBSD shell — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Primary Fix

Set sysrc sshd_enable=”YES”, validate with service sshd checkconfig, then service sshd restart and review logs. image_ref=1

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Illustrative mockup for freebsd-13 — log_or_config
Reviewing /etc/rc.conf and sshd_config for startup issues — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use service sshd start|stop|restart and ensure /etc/rc.conf keeps sshd_enable=”YES” for persistent startup.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config carefully, keep PermitRootLogin and PasswordAuthentication aligned with policy, then recheck.

Rollback Plan

If pf is enabled, verify pass rules for tcp port 22 and reload with pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf.

Prevention & Hardening

Run sockstat -4 -6 -l | grep :22 and test ssh localhost plus a remote login from another host.

Track auth.log failures with periodic checks and include service sshd onestatus in routine health scripts.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for freebsd-13.

View all freebsd-13 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Consult man sshd, man rc.conf, and the FreeBSD Handbook service management section.

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