Let’s look into the methods to delete the SSH key in DigitalOcean. Bobcares, as a part of our DigitalOcean Managed Services, offers solutions to every query that comes our way.

Methods to delete SSH key in DigitalOcean

Method 1

If the user is given root access, then it is necessary to change the root password. We can use the below code to lock a user account from SSH access if the user has a separate account:

/usr/bin/passwd developer_user -l

We can also simply remove it using the code:

/usr/sbin/userdel developer_user

Make sure to change ‘developer_user’ = account name.

Method 2

We can use the API methods to delete the SSH key.

delete(key_id) deletes the SSH Key by its id or fingerprint.

delete!(key_id), similar to delete/1 but returns the response body only.

Method 3

We’ve to change the server root password after removing any usernames that the developer may have used from the ssh shell:

userdel

passwd root

Method 4

Find the file /root/.ssh/authorized_keys. Delete any content inside this file. This file stores the SSH key which can be used by anyone having a private ssh key file to login into the server.

Method 5

There are always 2 keys. namely a private and a public key. We can find the keyfiles on the server. We need to open /etc/ssh/sshd_config and find AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys. Then edit this file to remove the key manually. There may be other users keys also installed.

Open /etc/ssh/ssh_config on the client and check for a different route there. A relative path that varies depending on the user is ~/. The path will change to /root when the ssh command set is run with sudo.

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Conclusion

To sum up, we provide some simple methods from our Tech team to delete the SSH keys in the DigitalOcean platform.