Okta Access Gateway Management Console SSH Fails With Too Many Authentication Failures Error
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Overview
Secure Shell (SSH) access to the Okta Access Gateway (OAG) management console fails when the SSH client offers too many keys, exceeding the server limit. Administrators must use a specific SSH command to restrict the offered identities and resolve the issue. When an administrator attempts to access the OAG management console via SSH, the connection fails and generates the following error.
Received disconnect from <OAG_IP> port 22:2: Too many authentication failures Disconnected from <OAG_IP> port 22
Applies To
- Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
- Okta Classic Engine
- Okta Access Gateway (OAG)
- Management Console
Cause
The SSH client offers numerous SSH keys to the server during authentication, exceeding the maximum authentication tries limit of the server before presenting the correct key or a password prompt.
Solution
How is the Okta Access Gateway management console SSH authentication failure resolved?
Restrict the SSH client to only offer explicitly configured identities by executing the following command.
ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes oag-mgmt@<OAG_IP>The IdentitiesOnly=yes option ensures that only the identities explicitly configured are offered, ignoring other keys.
