Find SSH Password Auth Exceptions

You need to see whether sshd_config has password authentication exceptions under Match rules.

Command

awk '/^Match /{ctx=$0} /^PasswordAuthentication|^AuthenticationMethods|^[[:space:]]+PasswordAuthentication|^[[:space:]]+AuthenticationMethods/ {print (ctx ? ctx : "global") ": " $0}' etc/ssh/sshd_config

Before you run this

Risk: safe. Do not reload SSH based only on this excerpt; validate the full effective sshd configuration on a real host.

Expected output

Authentication directives labeled as global or attached to the active Match block.

System impact

Nothing changes. The command reads sshd_config and prints authentication directives with their current Match context.

Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.

When to use it

Use when a host appears key-only but some users or source ranges can still use password authentication.

When not to use it

Do not reload SSH based only on this excerpt; validate the full effective sshd configuration on a real host.

Watch this command run

Example output from a temporary Linux lab

This example uses disposable sample files and sanitized output so you can inspect the shape of the result before touching a real system.

demo@lab:~$

$ sed -n '1,12p' etc/ssh/sshd_config

Port 22
PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no
KbdInteractiveAuthentication no
AuthenticationMethods publickey
AllowUsers alice deploy
Include etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf
Match Address 198.51.100.0/24
    PasswordAuthentication yes
    AuthenticationMethods publickey,password

$ awk '/^Match /{ctx=$0} /^PasswordAuthentication|^AuthenticationMethods|^[[:space:]]+PasswordAuthentication|^[[:space:]]+AuthenticationMethods/ {print (ctx ? ctx : "global") ": " $0}' etc/ssh/sshd_config

global: PasswordAuthentication no
global: AuthenticationMethods publickey
Match Address 198.51.100.0/24:     PasswordAuthentication yes
Match Address 198.51.100.0/24:     AuthenticationMethods publickey,password

View reproducible demo details

This page shows the sanitized shell transcript and the setup steps needed to reproduce the example.