PUZZLEEASY

SSH Is Locked Out

A late-night sshd_config edit broke remote logins. Get SSH accepting connections again before the next on-call rotation.

40 minutes
linux

Puzzle Overview

Someone tried to "harden" sshd_config and in the process broke the daemon. The service is failing to start, and even if it did start, nobody could log in. You have console access. Your job is to get SSH healthy again.

Skills tested: reading systemd journal, parsing sshd_config syntax, understanding PAM and authentication settings, basic service recovery.

Technologies Covered

linuxsshsystemdsecuritypuzzle

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