Disable Root SSH Login on Debian

Before we begin, you should make sure that you have a regular user account and that you can su or sudo to root from it. So  do these first:

adduser usrer1

assign a passwd to user1. and then add it to sudoers. But first need to install sudo:

apt-get install sudo

add this line inside to 


        nano /etc/sudoers

user1  ALL=(ALL) ALL

Open the file up while logged on as root.

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find this section in the file, containing the line with “PermitRootLogin” in it.

#LoginGraceTime 2m
#PermitRootLogin no
#StrictModes yes
#MaxAuthTries 6

Make the line look like this to disable logging in through ssh as root.

PermitRootLogin no

Now you’ll need to restart the sshd service:

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

Now nobody can brute force your root login, at least.

Source: How-to Geek