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@mswell
Forked from agungf/gist:8803512
Created February 22, 2023 14:00
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Remove passphrase (password) from private RSA key
Should also work for:
[v] any OpenSSH installation
Given, your key is in id_rsa
1
Passphrase is needed?
Try some host which has your public key (id_rsa.pub)
> ssh my_user@myhost
You should get Enter passphrase for key kind of response
2
Remove passphrase
openssl rsa -in ~/.ssh/id_rsa -out ~/.ssh/id_rsa_new
and enter your old passphrase
3
Replace key
Backup and replace your private ssh key
cp ~/.ssh/id_rsa ~/.ssh/id_rsa.backup
rm ~/.ssh/id_rsa
cp ~/.ssh/id_rsa_new ~/.ssh/id_rsa
4
Set key permissions
chmod 400 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
5
Test it
Now, following should log your into remote system, no questions asked
> ssh my_user@myhost
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