ssh to non-root user still prompting for password after copying ssh keys

This document (7015340) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

ssh keys have been manually copied or ssh-copy-id as been run to copy the keys to a non-root user on the target server but when you ssh to that user on the target server you are still prompted for the password. Running 'ssh -v <username>@<hostname> shows this message after you enter the password when it prompts:

debug1: Remote: Ignored authorized keys: bad ownership or modes for directory /home/<username>

Resolution

Check the permissions on the non-root users home folder. If the folder has full permissions:

# ll /home/

drwxrwxrwx 5 <username> users 4096 Nov 1 2013 <username>

change the permissions to 755 with the chmod command.

chmod 755 /home/<username>

The permissions should now show this:

# ll /home/

drwxr-xr-x 5 <username> users 4096 Nov 1 2013 <username>

Now ssh'ing to the user won't prompt for the password.

Disclaimer

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