What is the password for ``ssh root@localhost``?

I need to ssh to localhost using root account, by ssh root@localhost. When it prompts for passwords, I can not login with all possible passwords. On setting of localhost machine, regular user xxx and root user share the same password (the password that works for sudo -s), but it does not works for ssh root@localhost. So where to look at the password for ssh root@localhost

PS: with the password, I can login to regular account on ssh xxx@localhost.

PPS: to answer further questions on motivation of doing so, localhost is just a computer in a private network and setting up ssh root@localhost is just to relieve some manual management in a prototype system.

ssh root@localhost uses the same password for root. It looks like you have not set root password. To do that log in as root using sudo -s then use passwd command to set root password.

After that you must be able to ssh as root

• How to find out root password for installing software

If you decide to use the root account.

Disable the ability to log in over ssh with root if ssh is exposed to internet. Instead login as a user, and su to root.

This will make sure to prevent brute force attacks against your computer. Since its harder to guess both the user and password. Knowing the username one would only have to brute force the password

changing the line:

PermitRootLogin yes

under /etc/ssh/sshd_config

to

PermitRootLogin no

and run:

service sshd restart

to reload the configuration.