Synology locked root behind three doors — I spent twenty minutes teaching it how to let me back in

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:30:00 +0800

TL;DR

Synology DSM, by design, ships with SSH disabled and root login prohibited — both sensible defaults. This guide walks you through “doing it the right way”:

Control Panel → Terminal & SNMP → Enable SSH (open the gate)

Log in as a normal user, then sudo -i to become root (borrow the landlord’s key first)

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set PermitRootLogin yes (tell the bouncer “root is family”)

synouser --setpw root xxx to set a root password, and append your public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (hand back a key that can never be lost)

Total time: about twenty minutes. I’ll explain why every step exists using a “key and lock” metaphor, give you a 3-second vi crash course, list the error messages you’ll see, and answer the seven most common questions.

NAS on Margrop Blog

Synology locked root behind three doors — I spent twenty minutes teaching it how to let me back in