Reflection for Secure IT for UNIX > User Authentication > Password and Keyboard Interactive Authentication > Configure Keyboard Interactive Authentication

Configure Keyboard Interactive Authentication

Keyboard-interactive authentication is supported by default; no configuration is required on either the server or the client to use this authentication method.

Follow these procedures if you want to modify the default server or client configuration.

To configure keyboard interactive authentication on the client

  1. Open the client configuration file (/etc/ssh2/ssh2_config) in a text editor.

  2. Edit the AllowedAuthentications keyword. For example, to require keyboard interactive authentication:

    AllowedAuthentications=keyboard-interactive

To configure keyboard interactive authentication on the server

  1. Open the server configuration file (/etc/ssh2/sshd2_config) in a text editor.

  2. Edit AllowedAuthentications or RequiredAuthentications. For example:

    To

    Do This

    Support keyboard-interactive authentication, but not traditional password authentication

    Remove password from the allowed list. For example:

    AllowedAuthentications=gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,publickey,keyboard-interactive

    Require keyboard interactive authentication

    Enter the following command:

    RequiredAuthentications=keyboard-interactive

  3. (Optional) Use AuthKbdInt.Retries to change the maximum number of attempts a user is allowed for keyboard-interactive authentication (the default is 3). For example:

    AuthKbdInt.Retries=5

  4. (Optional) Configure account management using AccountManagement. For details, see Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM).

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