Connection reset: Powershell OpenSSH on Windows Server 2012

While Microsoft's implementation of Powershell worked perfectly (as per the instructions) on Windows Server 2016 - you need to go few some additional steps in order to get it running on Server 2012 R2.

I encountered the following message when attempting to connect via my *nix box:

ssh testuser@testbox.com

Connection Reset.

It wasn't a firewall issue since I could retrieve the OpenSSH banner via telnet.

After running the server in debug mode:

sshd -ddd

Everything seemed to work - so it looked like it was a permissions of some kind - after a little digging I found the following script that checks host permissions - running this resolved the issue:

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\FixHostFilePermissions.ps1

Note: This script is included in the same package as the OpenSSH installer.

Need to remove the inheritance before repair the rules.
Shall I remove the inheritace?
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"):
Inheritance is removed from 'C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config'.

'NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users' should not have access to 'C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config'..
Shall I remove this access?
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): New-NetFirewallRule -Protocol TC
P -LocalPort 22 -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -DisplayName SSH
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): Y
'NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users' has no more access to 'C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config'.
      Repaired permissions

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_dsa_key
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_ecdsa_key
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_ed25519_key
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_rsa_key
      looks good

  [*] C:\ProgramData\ssh\ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
      looks good

  [*] C:\Users\svc_adreporting\.ssh\authorized_keys
      looks good

   Done.

I know on the *nix implementation with the 'StrictMode' option the OpenSSH server will not operate if permissions are set incrorectly and I wonder whether something similar had been switched on in the Windows implementation.

There is also a script called FixUserFilePermissions.ps1 to check bits like permissions of the users .ssh folder and files within. If you are still experiencing problems it might be worth running this as well to ensure your user permissions are correct.