3 Steps to Perform SSH Login Without Password

If you are new to Unixmen, you may want to subscribe :

15 December 2008

ssh-keygen creates the public and private keys. ssh-copy-id copies the local-host’s public key

to the remote-host’s authorized_keys file. ssh-copy-id also assigns proper permission to the

remote-host’s home, ~/.ssh, and ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.

This article also explains 3 minor annoyances of using ssh-copy-id and how to use ssh-copy-id

along with ssh-agent.

Step 1: Create public and private keys using

ssh-key-gen on local-host :

jsmith@local-host$ [Note: You are on local-host here] pirat9@local-host$ ssh-keygen Generating public/private

rsa key pair. Enter file in which to save the key (/home/jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa):[Enter key] Enter passphrase

(empty for no passphrase):

[Press enter key] Enter same passphrase again: [Pess enter key] Your identification has been saved in /home/jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa.

 Your public key has been saved in /home/jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. The key fingerprint is:

33:b3:fe:af:95:95:18:11:31:d5:de:96:2f:f2:35:f9 jsmith@local-host

Step 2: Copy the public key to remote-host

using ssh-copy-id :

jsmith@local-host$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub remote-host jsmith@remote-host’s password:

Now try logging into the machine, with “ssh ‘remote-host’”, and check in:

.ssh/authorized_keys  to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.

Note: ssh-copy-id appends the keys to the remote-host’s .ssh/authorized_key.

Step 3: Login to remote-host without

entering the password

pirat9@local-host$ ssh remote-host Last login: Sun Nov 30  17:22:33 2008 from 192.168.1.200

[Note: SSH did not ask for password.] pirat9@remote-host$ [Note: You are on remote-host here]

If you have a Tip, tutorial, Idea or anything you want to share with unixmen readers, you can send it to : tips[a]unixmen.com or use our contact form Thanks.

Related Articles By Tags:

Tags: