Mac OSX and enabling user root All I am running OSX 10.6.8 I have enabled root login through Directory Utility. I have assigned a password.

I get an error when I try to ssh root@localhost.

ssh -v root@localhost

OpenSSH_5.2p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8r 8 Feb 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/config
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: Connecting to localhost [127.0.0.1] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/identity type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: identity file /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/id_dsa type 2
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.2
debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.2 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.2
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server-&gt;client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client-&gt;server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024&lt;1024&lt;8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host 'localhost' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/known_hosts:47
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering public key: /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Trying private key: /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/identity
debug1: Offering public key: /Users/rrazavipour-lp/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive
Password:
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey,keyboard-interactive).


What I am doing wrong? I know I have the password correct.
Root login over SSH is not enabled by default for good reason.  Since you are not connecting remotely in your example, I recommend:

sudo su


to switch to root user if you need to run several commands in a row.  This keeps you from needing to do the much safer

sudo commandname


where you need to prefix every command with sudo. If ssh is a requirement, you can simply:

ssh user@host


and then

sudo su


to switch to root user. This is a much safer approach from a security standpoint. 

Lastly, if you really think you must enable root login over ssh, see this link for instructions.