How to install SSH ( secure shell ) service on Kali Linux

Objective

The objective is to install SSH ( secure shell ) service on Kali Linux.

Requirements

Privileged access to your Kali Linux installation or Live system is required.

Difficulty

EASY

Conventions

  • # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
  • $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Instructions

Install SSH

From the terminal use apt-get command to install SSH packages:

# apt-get update
# apt-get install ssh

Enable and Start SSH

To make sure that secure shell starts after reboot use systemctl command to enable it:

# systemctl enable ssh

To start SSH for a current session execute:

# service ssh start


Allow SSH Root Access

By default SSH would not allow you to SSH login as root user, thus the following error message will appear:

Permission denied, please try again.

You have two options in order to be able to SSH into your Kali Linux. First option is to create a new non-privileged user and use its credentials to log in. Second, allow the root user to access the secure shell. To do so, either edit or insert the following line within the /etc/ssh/sshd_config SSH config file:

FROM:
#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password
TO:
PermitRootLogin yes

kali linux enable ssh root access

After you have made the above change of the /etc/ssh/sshd_config, restart ssh service before you attempt SSH login as a root user:

# service ssh restart