Mac terminal login via SSH key without entering password.

Question

I am trying to log into SSH using the terminal:

ssh root@example.com -p54 -i ~/.ssh/ssh_key

Custom port number 45. Chmod 600 ssh_key.

I know that the SSH key works correctly because I can connect fine via Putty on windows. What could be the problem?

Answer 1

If you generated the key in Windows using PuTTYgen and copied the key straight over to your linux workstation, it's likely the key is in the wrong format. You should be able to use PuTTYgen to convert the key into the standard OpenSSH format.

As an aside, best practice is to have a unique keypair for each device you connect from. Just generate a new keypair on the linux workstation and add that public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on example.com.