Unable to start cygwin sshd service

Question

I entered ssh-host-config into the cygwin prompt (started with admin privileges), said yes to privilege separation, new local account sshd, install sshd as a servic

Answer 1

I tried above solutions but nothing worked for me. I am using Windows 8 and was able to solve it. My sshd.log file says : "Privilege separation user sshd does not exist FAILED"

So to remove this error while starting sshd as service just following below steps:

1. Edit the file /etc/passwd --
   add " sshd:x:74:74:Privilege-separated SSH:/var/empty/sshd:/sbin/nologin ".

2. Edit the file /etc/group -- add " sshd:x:74: ".

Now start service as net start sshd

It worked for me!