after reading: http://www.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/comp.security.ssh/2002-02/0130.html http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-amd64/2004-09/msg00202.html it seems that HostbasedAuthentication only works for none root users unless: To work around that I can set: IgnoreRhosts no and `ln -s /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv /root/.shosts` However: IgnoreRhosts seems unsafe... does setting: RhostsRSAAuthentication no RhostsAuthentication no remove most of the risk? If no? how can i safely enable: Hostbased authentication and have root work the same as any user? without managing roots .ssh/authorized_keys http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/networking_2ndEd/ssh/ch05_05.htm IgnoreRootRhosts no perhaps would be nice to have.. Also it would have saved me *many hours if something was in the man pages or the openssh FAQ that said HostbasedAuthentication "does not work" for root the same as other users