To create a separate SSH account on an Ubuntu server, create the user, grant sudo only if needed, install that user’s public key, correct the SSH file permissions and ownership, then test from a second connection. The essential commands are sudo adduser username, sudo usermod -aG sudo username, and a correctly secured ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
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This procedure assumes you already have working SSH access to the server through an existing account with sudo privileges. Replace username with the account name you want to create. The commands are the standard sequence described by Ubuntu community guides; the specific behavior of any future Ubuntu release should be checked against that release’s documentation.
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What you need before starting
- An Ubuntu server that is already reachable over SSH.
- An existing login account that can run commands with
sudo. - The new user’s intended login name.
- The user’s SSH public key, if you want key-based authentication. A public key normally ends in a line such as
ssh-ed25519 ...orssh-rsa ....
No paid service or physical product is required. Keep the original SSH session open until the new account has successfully logged in and run a sudo check.
Step 1: Create the Ubuntu user
Run this from your existing administrative session:
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sudo adduser usernameUbuntu’s interactive adduser command asks you to choose a password and then offers optional profile fields. Enter the password when prompted. For fields such as the full name, room number, work phone, home phone and other information, press Enter to leave them blank unless your system has a specific reason to store them. Confirm the details when the command asks.
Use a distinct account for each person or service that needs access. Do not make several people share one login: individual accounts make it possible to remove one person’s access without changing everyone else’s credentials.
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Check that the account exists
After adduser completes, inspect the account and its groups:
id usernameThe output should show the new user’s numeric user ID, primary group and supplementary groups. At this point the account exists, but it has not yet been granted membership of Ubuntu’s administrative group and may not have an SSH key installed.
Step 2: Decide whether the user needs sudo
Only add the account to the sudo group if it must administer the server. A user who only needs to run an application or transfer files usually should not receive full administrative privileges.
Grant sudo access
To add the account to Ubuntu’s standard sudo group, run:
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Confirm the group assignment
Run the identity check again:
id usernameLook for sudo in the groups listed for the account. The group membership is associated with new login sessions, so do not assume an already-open shell has picked up the change.
Step 3: Create the user’s SSH directory
SSH looks for the public keys allowed for a user in that user’s home directory, under .ssh/authorized_keys. The directory and file must belong to the account that will log in, and they should not be writable by other users.
You can create the directory while logged in as the new user, or create it from the existing administrator account with sudo. The following commands create it from the administrator account and then apply the required ownership and modes:
sudo mkdir -p /home/username/.ssh
sudo chmod 700 /home/username/.ssh
sudo chown username:username /home/username/.sshMode 700 gives the user full access to .ssh while denying directory access to group and other users. The ownership command is important: a directory with the right mode but the wrong owner can still prevent key authentication.
Check the home-directory path
The commands above assume the usual home directory, /home/username, created by adduser. If your system uses a different home path, use the path shown for the account rather than blindly creating a second directory. You can display the account record with:
getent passwd usernameThe home directory is the sixth field in the colon-separated output. Use that directory when creating .ssh and authorized_keys.
Step 4: Create and secure authorized_keys
Create the key file, set its mode to 600, and assign it to the new user:
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sudo touch /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chmod 600 /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown username:username /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keysMode 600 allows the account to read and write the file while denying access to group and other users. Both .ssh and authorized_keys should be owned by username.
Install the public key
Open the file as an administrator:
sudo nano /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keysPaste the user’s public key into the file. Put one complete key on each line. Do not wrap a single key across multiple lines, add quotation marks, or paste the private key. Save the file and exit the editor.
If several devices or people need access to the same account, add each authorized public key on its own line. Removing one line later removes that key’s authorization without changing the others.
Reapply ownership and modes after editing
Run these commands once more after editing, especially if the file was created or modified through a different account:
sudo chmod 700 /home/username/.ssh
sudo chmod 600 /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown -R username:username /home/username/.sshThe recursive ownership command applies the account as owner of the directory and its key file. Avoid using a broad, permissive mode such as 777; SSH commonly rejects key files that are accessible to other users.
Step 5: Test the new SSH login safely
Do not close your working administrative session yet. Open a second terminal or terminal tab and connect to the server as the new user:
ssh username@server-addressReplace server-address with the server’s hostname or IP address. If the private key is not in your SSH client’s default key location, specify it with the client’s key option, for example:
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ssh -i /path/to/private-key username@server-addressUse the corresponding private key on the client that matches the public key placed in authorized_keys. The private key should remain on the client and should not be pasted into the server’s authorized-keys file.
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Once logged in, confirm that the session is the intended account:
whoami
idIf the account was meant to administer the server, run:
sudo -vEnter the new user’s password if prompted. A successful command validates that the account can obtain sudo credentials. Run this test in the second session before closing the original session; if SSH or sudo is misconfigured, the original connection is your recovery path.
Complete command sequence
For a typical new sudo user, the sequence is:
sudo adduser username
sudo usermod -aG sudo username
sudo mkdir -p /home/username/.ssh
sudo chmod 700 /home/username/.ssh
sudo chown username:username /home/username/.ssh
sudo touch /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chmod 600 /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown username:username /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo nano /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chmod 700 /home/username/.ssh
sudo chmod 600 /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown -R username:username /home/username/.ssh
id usernamePaste the public key while the editor is open, save it, then perform the second-session SSH and sudo -v test. If the account does not need administration, omit the usermod command and the sudo test.
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adduser versus useradd
Ubuntu includes both adduser and useradd, but they serve different roles. A Medium guide titled “Ubuntu Server 101” describes useradd as a low-level binary compiled with the system and adduser as a higher-level Perl script built on top of useradd. In practical terms, adduser provides the interactive account-creation flow used above, including prompts for a password and optional user information.
| Command | Role in this procedure | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
adduser username |
Recommended interactive account creation | Prompts for a password and optional profile fields. |
useradd username |
Lower-level account creation | Provides fewer interactive conveniences and generally requires you to specify or create additional account settings yourself. |
For a normal human SSH account on Ubuntu, the interactive command avoids common omissions. Use the lower-level tool only when you deliberately need its more granular behavior and know which account properties must be supplied.
Troubleshooting failed SSH login
The server says “Permission denied (publickey)”
- Check that the public key in
authorized_keysis complete and occupies one line. - Confirm that the key belongs to the private key being used by the client.
- Check the directory and file modes:
.sshshould be700andauthorized_keysshould be600. - Check ownership with
ls -ld /home/username/.sshandls -l /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys. Both should showusernameas owner. - Make sure you are connecting with the correct spelling of the username and the correct server address.
After correcting a problem, retry from the second terminal. Keep the original session open until the retry succeeds.
The account can log in but sudo fails
- Run
id usernamefrom the administrative session and confirm thatsudoappears among the groups. - If you just ran
usermod -aG sudo username, disconnect and start a fresh SSH session. Existing sessions may not have the new supplementary-group list. - Run
sudo -vin the fresh session and enter the password created byadduser.
The key file is in the wrong home directory
If adduser created a nonstandard home path, placing the key under /home/username/.ssh will not help. Use getent passwd username to identify the actual home directory, move or recreate the .ssh/authorized_keys files there, and then reapply ownership and modes.
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The public key was pasted with line breaks
A public key must be a single logical line in authorized_keys. If an editor wrapped the display but did not insert newline characters, that is normally harmless; an actual newline in the middle of the key is not. Paste the key again as one line and remove the broken copy.
Security and access decisions
Use sudo only when the job requires it
Adding a user to the sudo group grants administrative capability. For a contractor, application account or file-transfer-only login, create the account without that group unless administration is genuinely required.
Prefer separate keys for separate people and devices
One key per authorized person or device makes access revocation precise. Delete only the corresponding line from authorized_keys when that key should no longer work.
Keep a recovery session available
The safest order is to create the account, install the key, test a second SSH connection, run sudo -v if applicable, and only then close the original session. This prevents a permissions mistake or an incorrect key from eliminating your only administrative path.
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A third-party walkthrough is titled for Ubuntu 26.04 and says the same commands apply, but that version-specific behavior is not confirmed by official release notes in the available material. Treat the commands here as the established community procedure and verify any release-specific defaults on the server you administer. The account, group, SSH-directory and key-file steps should be checked if a distribution update changes defaults.
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