IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 247 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~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

Users get ‘Permission denied (publickey)’ even with a correct authorized_keys entry.

Environment & Reproduction

Common after home directory restore or RBAC-managed user changes.

Root Cause Analysis

Wrong permissions on ~/.ssh or authorized_keys, or SELinux-like AIX TCB labels mismatched.

Quick Triage

Run sshd -d -p 2222 in a test session and check /var/adm/messages or auth.log.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Verify ls -ld ~ and ls -l ~/.ssh/authorized_keys for 700/600 ownership.

Solution – Primary Fix

Correct ownership with chown user:group and chmod 700/600 on key files.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Disable strict modes temporarily in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and restart sshd while investigating.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

ssh user@host logs in without prompting and last shows new login entries.

Rollback Plan

Revert sshd_config changes and restart sshd via stopsrc/startsrc.

Prevention & Hardening

Ship a consistent ~/.ssh skeleton via mkuser templates and audit periodically.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Tied to RBAC role changes and home directory restores.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM AIX 7.3 OpenSSH on AIX configuration notes.