DISCUSSION: Public key authentication with ssh

jringoot · 10-11-2010, 03:09 AM

I find myself regularly coming back to this page when I have some trouble with ssh.

Thanks!

I add something related I find usefull as well:
To quickly create a key-pair for a new user, I use this command in a script:
ssh-keygen -qv -f $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa -N ""
(this could be improved as : su $USERNAME -c "ssh-keygen -qv -f $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa -N ''"
Where $USERNAME has been set earlier in the script, (eg as input parameter: "$USERNAME=$1")

selahlynch · 02-02-2011, 08:13 AM

I have learned that it is very important that you have set the right permissions!! The following work for me:

Code:

chmod 600 privatekey
chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 700 .ssh

When I had my .ssh directory permissions wrong, my authentication failed without any warnings or errors.