Replace the root user on ubuntu
When booting up an Ubuntu server, one of the first things to do is to create a new user and disallow root user login. This is for security reasons, since every linux server has a root account by default, it's easy for malucious users to force into the server.
Create User
Let's say we now just created an Ubuntu server, and logged in as the root user. Then we can start creating the user by running:
sudo adduser adler
It will ask you to create a user with basic informations including a password.
Add User to sudo group
In order to give this user permission as sudoer, we'll add this user to sudo user group.
usermod -aG sudo adler
Changing Password
If at any point we want to change the password, run the command:
# as root
sudo passwd adler
# as adler
passwd
we'll be able to change it.
Copy SSH Key(s)
Then we need to be able to log in as this user using SSH key. We'll copy the key(s) from root user.
mkdir /home/adler/.ssh
cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/adler/.ssh/
Then we'll change the attributes of this directory to make it accessible.
sudo chmod 0700 /home/adler/.ssh/
sudo chown -R adler:adler /home/adler/.ssh/
Disabling root login
Make sure we can log in as our new user by logging out and logging in as:
ssh [email protected]
Change the example.com to your domain or IP.
Try some sudo commands to make sure it works:
sudo vi
You should be able to run the editor successfully after typing the password.
After confirmed, lt's block the root login to improve security. Run:
sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
(or open it with your favourite editor.) Find the line:
PermitRootLogin yes
and change that to no. If that line does not exist, add it to the file.
After that, run:
sudo service ssh restart
And it should be working. Log out and log in again as root should be blocked.
Delete User
In case we want to delete the user, run:
sudo userdel -r adler