Unable to start cygwin sshd service

I followed the steps in this topic and the problem was still happening, then I checked the sshd log file and it was complaining that the privilegies of the ssh private key were to open.

I executed the follow command:

chmod 400 /etc/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

Then I run the service:

net start sshd

It finally worked (BTW: I am using Windows 8)

I had the same problem and here is the solution that worked for me.

Solution 1

Restart the machine after you set the path environment variables to point to Cygwin bin directories and then start the service.

Solution 2

1. First add the account that runs the Cygwin sshd demon service to administrators group (this is by default)

2. Go to your cygwin installation folder (mine is at c:\cygwin64 and yours may differ)

   • add administrators group as full control. remove the property
   • Remove Readonly for your cygwin installation folder so anyone can write into it

3. Run the cygwin terminal as administrator and remove the service by typing

   cygrunsrv -R sshd

4. Reboot your system

5. Run the cygwin terminal as administrator and reinstall the service again by typing

   ssh-host-config -y

6. Run the cygwin terminal as administrator and start the service by typing

   net start sshd

Your service now be running!

I tried above solutions but nothing worked for me.I am using Windows 8 and was able to solve it.My sshd.log file says : "Privilege separation user sshd does not exist FAILED"

So to remove this error while starting sshd as service just following below steps:

1. Edit the file /etc/passwd --
   add " sshd:x:74:74:Privilege-separated SSH:/var/empty/sshd:/sbin/nologin ".

2. Edit the file /etc/group -- add " sshd:x:74: ".

Now start service as net start sshd

It worked for me!