ssh "permissions are too open"

Question

I get the following error from ssh:

Permissions 0777 for '/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa' are too open.
It is recommended that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.

What permissions should I give to the id_rsa file?

Thanks for asking the quesiton. A better experience would be for the one who wrote this error message to suggest a few valid configurations (such as 600 or 400 as suggested below). Programmers not writing sufficiently complete error messages that are helpful have been torturing all of us for years! — George Pligoropoulos, Apr 11 '18 at 14:37
FWIW, this is related to `StrictModes` being enabled on the `sshd` server, from the [man](https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?sshd_config(5)) page: "StrictModes Specifies whether sshd(8) should check file modes and ownership of the user's files and home directory before accepting login." - you could disable this however not suggested. — masseyb, Aug 29 '19 at 08:34
Instead of `It is recommended` my os shows `It is required`. Maybe my os is newer (2020) and that`s why. — Timo, May 27 '21 at 19:58
Also applies to other setups, such as even `Permissions 640 ... are too open` and other OSes such as [Unix](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/unix) as well as [Linux](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/linux) — Cadoiz, Nov 25 '21 at 14:45
Unfortunately, the question cannot be edited any more. `Title cannot contain "ssh "permissions are too open" error"` It tells me "Please provide a title that summarizes your question. For assistance, see: [How do I ask a good question?](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask)" - which I want to suggest and share here and now. — i_want_more_edits, Nov 29 '21 at 10:58
Had the same error. In my case I just incorrectly configured .ssh/config and used public key: `IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`. So when changed to `IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa` everything worked well. — Sergey Ponomarev, Oct 02 '22 at 20:36
Remove (`-`) read permissions for Others And Group: `chmod go-r id_rsa`. `g` for `group`, `o` for `others`, `r` for `read`. No more strange codes, meaning is the king. — AlikElzin-kilaka, Nov 11 '22 at 21:58

score 5065 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 14 '22 at 04:31

5065

The keys need to be read-writable only by you:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Alternatively, the keys can be only readable by you (this also blocks your write access):

chmod 400 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

600 appears to be better in most cases, because you don't need to change file permissions later to edit it. (See the comments for more nuances)

The relevant portion from the manpage (man ssh)

 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
         Contains the private key for authentication.  These files contain sensitive 
         data and should be readable by the user but not
         accessible by others (read/write/execute).  ssh will simply ignore a private 
         key file if it is              
         accessible by others.  It is possible to specify a
         passphrase when generating the key which will be used to encrypt the sensitive 
         part of this file using 3DES.

 ~/.ssh/identity.pub
 ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
 ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa.pub
 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
         Contains the public key for authentication.  These files are not sensitive and 
         can (but need not) be readable by anyone.

edited Jun 14 '22 at 04:31

Zain Rizvi

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answered Feb 14 '12 at 02:05

quickshiftin

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400 is too low as that makes it non-writable by your own user. 600 is actually recommended as it allows owner read-write not just read. – jfreak53 Jul 09 '13 at 23:55
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I discovered today there are times when 400 is relevant. Suppose you have an authorized_keys file that has the [no-pty et al](http://oreilly.com/catalog/sshtdg/chapter/ch08.html) features set. If the file is writeable, the user can actually overwrite the authorized_keys file and gain interactive shell access! Something to keep in mind, though surely not the general case for most folks. – quickshiftin Nov 16 '13 at 00:35
ugh... I'm moving the file... I don't even want it where it is, I'm just setting a password. Can I tell ssh-keygen that I'm smarter than it, and that I don't care about the permissions just this once? – isaaclw Jul 01 '15 at 15:57
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AWS actually recommends permission 400 on their website. That's what I did on OS X and it worked. – George Mylonas Jan 06 '16 at 15:26
8

This definitely works and is more secure. The only downside is you then have to change it to 600 to edit. For id_rsa, and id_rsa.pub I doubt that matters because you rarely ever will edit those files, but for authorized_keys, it could be annoying. Best to understand the tradeoffs and configure each system appropriately. – quickshiftin Jan 06 '16 at 17:11
7

I suppose it also depends on how often you're editing them. Many people set it and forget it, thus 400 would be more secure from others and your own actions; modifying to 600 when necessary. If it's part of your workflow and your ssh-savy, then maybe it would be more of a hindrance to keep changing permissions. – vol7ron Jun 01 '16 at 14:27
1

**IMPORTANT** : For me, I was unable to change permissions of `id_rsa` inside `.ssh` folder, so I changed the permission of it on my desktop then copied it to `.ssh` folder with this code after `cd desktop` use `cp -frp id_rsa ~/.ssh` then add it `ssh-add -K id_rsa` – Husam Nov 02 '16 at 12:04
@theonlygusti Have a look [here](http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/55481/14572); this helped me today. The perms on the www-data users home directory needed to be modified; subtle issue IMO. – quickshiftin Feb 07 '17 at 18:12
`chmod 400` didn't work for me, despite no warning or error, the file permissions were just not changed - as if the command did nothing. Figured it must be cuz my private key was inside a folder shared between a VM and his host machine (i.e., chmod be like "hey, it's publicly accessible so no new file permissions for you!"). So I moved the key to `~/.ssh/private_key`, chmoded it over in this folder instead and now everything works. – Martin Andersson Nov 18 '17 at 19:03
5

How to change to this permission in **Windows**? I tried setting both directory and file to hidden and readonly, but without success. – Lei Yang Nov 27 '17 at 02:18
for some reason when i changed the permission to 600 or 400 i can no longer access it myself – Jono Mar 07 '18 at 09:13
2

How to change the permissions under **Windows** folder? I tried to change it to 600 but failed. If I change it to 600 under Ubuntu folder, it was successful. However, if I copied the file with 600 to the windows folder, its permissions came back to 777. – Ken S Jul 10 '20 at 13:36
1

If you are **using a VM in Windows and experiencing problems**, your file is probably in a **shared folder** between the VM and Windows. Try copying the file to a folder that only the VM has access to, _then_ change permissions. – Lemmings19 Jul 27 '20 at 18:16
1

I was on WSL, had to move the .pem file to the mounted linux root before I can run chmod on it. `mv clidemo.pem ~/.ssh/clidemo.pem` adn then `chmod 600 ~/.ssh/clidemo.pem` worked. – Kerem Sep 25 '20 at 16:03
@GeorgeMylonas From Cygwin, even a 400 command is giving this kind of issues for AWS – Ashu Apr 03 '21 at 15:20
Wrote up this article to outline the whole process https://www.thedevnote.xyz/note/how-to-move-your-ssh-generated-keys-to-a-new-laptop – Erick Wachira Feb 16 '22 at 17:38
After this solution, I got the message "load pubkey '...': Permission denied.", but the pull from Github still worked. Not sure what to make of this result. – ryanwebjackson Sep 21 '22 at 20:26
1

I think you can do `export GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -vvv';`, then run the clone command to get more details on what seems to be an unrelated warning (if the pull is working). – quickshiftin Sep 22 '22 at 00:33

score 124 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 30 '21 at 07:26

124

Using Cygwin in Windows 8.1, there is a command need to be run:

chgrp Users ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Then the solution posted here can be applied, 400 or 600 is OK.

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Reference here

edited Nov 30 '21 at 07:26

Cadoiz

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answered Apr 11 '14 at 11:17

tanza9

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locale-dependent. I had to run "chgrp Użytkownicy ~/.ssh/id_rsa" since "Users" errored no such group. – Marcos Sep 26 '14 at 18:44
I had to do this as well. My cygwin directory was in the default location (`C:\cygwin64`) so it probably inherited the permissions. Strange that this didn't happen on other laptops I've owned. – Zach Thacker Oct 15 '14 at 01:32
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@Marcos I've added an answer that works regardless of locale: http://stackoverflow.com/a/28647713/67013 – thehouse Feb 21 '15 at 15:53
4

Windows 10. Used the second command only. Worked like a charm. – StalkAlex Dec 08 '15 at 12:16
Note that for installations in alternative languages the 'Users' group has alternative identifiers. – John Rumpel Oct 27 '16 at 18:00
I use sudo `chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa`. Then, run ssl -L xxxx id_rsa. it asks me that the authenticity of host 'ci-smartface.westeurope.cloudapp.azure.com (13.94.213.109)' can't be established. ECDSA key fingerprint is yyyy. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?. I enter 'yes', same error is exist WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE! . – us2956 Sep 29 '17 at 11:33

score 80 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 08 '18 at 03:08

80

I've got the error in my windows 10 so I set permission as the following and it works.

In details, remove other users/groups until it has only 'SYSTEM' and 'Administrators'. Then add your windows login into it with Read permission only.

Note the id_rsa file is under the c:\users\<username> folder.

answered Dec 08 '18 at 03:08

Supawat Pusavanno

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I have the same problem on Win-10. Based on your explanation, not clear what did you actually allowed and denied - I have "users' and 'authenticated users' and Not 'specific user" as options + System and Administrators. Besides I could not figure out cygwin - to install or use.(?) – Sam-T Oct 16 '19 at 00:13
29

**for Win10 need move your key to user's home** - this worked perfectly. I was trying giving full path to key and messing with the permissions - nothing worked. – Sam-T Oct 16 '19 at 00:44
@Sam-T if you cannot see your name in list, you can add by press ```Edit...``` then press ```Add...``` then type your name in the text box ```"Enter the object names to select"``` then press ```Check Names``` button (and press ```OK``` and another ```OK```) then your name should be listed in the ```Security``` tab – Supawat Pusavanno Oct 16 '19 at 19:23
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I probably can add the name specifically - per your instructions. But my main question was - **what exact permissions to Deny and Allow for all**. Meanwhile as mentioned I was able to solve the problem by simply adding the `.pem` to the `myuser directory` – Sam-T Oct 16 '19 at 20:31
Oh thank you. This worked perfectly on windows 10, I was trying to achive this for weeks. – Lalit Sharma Jan 22 '21 at 19:16

score 53 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 21 '15 at 15:51

53

The locale-independent solution that works on Windows 8.1 is:

chgrp 545 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

GID 545 is a special ID that always refers to the 'Users' group, even if you locale uses a different word for Users.

answered Feb 21 '15 at 15:51

thehouse

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lm5050 · Answer 5 · 2020-08-12T12:04:46.090

52

Windows 10 ssh into Ubuntu EC2 “permissions are too open” error on AWS

I had this issue trying to ssh into an Ubuntu EC2 instance using the .pem file from AWS.

In windows this worked when I put this key in a folder created under the .ssh folder

C:\Users\USERNAME\.ssh\private_key

To change permission settings in Windows 10 :

File Settings > Security > Advanced

Disable inheritance

Convert Inherited Permissions Into Explicit Permissions

Remove all the permission entries except for Administrators

Could then connect securely.

edited Aug 12 '20 at 12:04

answered Mar 26 '20 at 12:45

lm5050

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That was really helpful! Thanks! – guptasaanika Dec 21 '20 at 09:43
moving the private key under .ssh was enough for me (and chmod 600) – LoMaPh Jul 15 '22 at 04:39

score 44 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 28 '21 at 13:17

44

AFAIK the values are:

700 for the hidden directory .ssh where key files are located
600 for the keyfile id_rsa

edited Nov 28 '21 at 13:17

Cadoiz

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answered Nov 13 '14 at 07:57

ajaaskel

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score 42 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 14 '12 at 02:04

42

0600 is what mine is set at (and it's working)

answered Feb 14 '12 at 02:04

Devin Ceartas

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score 35 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 03 '21 at 00:49

35

I have got a similar issue when i was trying to login to remote ftp server using public keys.
To solve this issue I have done the following process:

First find the location of the public keys, because when you try to login to ftp, this public key is used.
Alternatively, you can create a key and set that key's permissions to 600.
Make sure you are in the correct location and perform this command:

chmod 600 id_rsa

edited Dec 03 '21 at 00:49

i_want_more_edits

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answered May 26 '20 at 13:50

Ravi Teja Mureboina

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This is worked for macos m1 – Mehmet Aziz Algüllü Apr 27 '22 at 02:04

score 28 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 27 '21 at 17:32

28

On Windows 10, cygwin's chmod and chgrp weren't enough for me. I had to

right click on the file
-> Properties
-> Security (tab)
and remove all users and groups except for my active user.

edited Nov 27 '21 at 17:32

Cadoiz

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answered Jul 21 '18 at 05:39

Jared Beach

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This is only solution that is working :) Thanks you saved my time – Atul Oct 10 '19 at 07:53
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I found that, after doing this, I could do ssh from normal Windows command prompt as well. No need to use Cygwin. Great! – Atul Oct 10 '19 at 08:00

score 27 · Answer 10 · edited Nov 28 '21 at 08:57

27

I got success with sudo

sudo chmod 400 pem-file.pem
sudo ssh -i pem-file.pem username@X.X.X.X

edited Nov 28 '21 at 08:57

Bazer Con

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answered Mar 03 '21 at 03:31

nhaht

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the only things that worked for me – Talha Anwar Dec 11 '21 at 11:05
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sudo is the only thing that worked out of all – dumb_coder Jan 22 '22 at 15:32
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Using windows wsl and this worked! – West Jun 16 '22 at 05:56
Same it work for me in windows 11. Thanks – Sagar Ghare Aug 01 '23 at 05:24

score 24 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 28 '18 at 11:03

24

provide 400 permission, execute below command

chmod 400 /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa

answered Aug 28 '18 at 11:03

Sujit Dhamale

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score 19 · Answer 12 · edited Nov 26 '21 at 13:02

There is one exception to the 0x00 permissions requirement on a key. If the key is owned by root and group-owned by a group with users in it, then it can be 0440 and any user in that group can use the key.

I believe this will work with any permissions in the set 0xx0 but I haven't tested every combination with every version. I have tried 0660 with 5.3p1-84 on CentOS 6, and the group not the primary group of the user but a secondary group, and it works fine.

This would typically not be done for someone's personal key, but for a key used for automation, in a situation where you don't want the application to be able to mess with the key.

Similar rules apply to the .ssh directory restrictions.

score 17 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 27 '20 at 04:50

17

For windows users Only. Goto file property --> security --> advanced

Disable inheritance property
Convert Inherited Permissions Into Explicit Permissions.
Remove all the permission entries except the Administrators.

answered Jul 27 '20 at 04:50

Vasu

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score 15 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 22 '19 at 12:14

15

This is what worked for me (on mac)

sudo chmod 600 path_to_your_key.pem

then :

ssh -i path_to_your_key user@server_ip

Hope it help

answered Jan 22 '19 at 12:14

lansanalsm

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Mostafa Wael · Answer 15 · 2021-11-15T09:39:09.077

In case you are using WSL on windows

The most simple answer is to just type: sudo ssh -i keyfile.pem <user>@ip

without changing the file permissions. The reason why this happens? Another resource

You can't modify the permissions of files on Windows's filesystem using chmod on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. You'll have to copy the private key to your WSL home directory (~) and do it there.

On the other hand, sudo should never be utilized with ssh. The reason why issuing with sudo works is that it's now likely being executed as root, and this is not the correct way to do this and is a massive security risk, as Allowing for anything other the 600/400 permissions defeats the purpose of utilizing an SSH key, compromising the security of the key.

The best way to do that is by copying the file to $HOME/.ssh:

cp keyfile.pem ~/.ssh

Doing sudo chmod 400 keyfile.pem to it.

Then ssh -i keyfile.pem <user>@ip.

Bingo (on Windows 10 WSL)! It's nice to chmod Windows files from WSL Linux as folk tried here, but clearly still problematical and shifting sands over time. Moving the .pem private key to Linux where running SSH from makes total sense, and it works - and without any chmod or chgrp. Thank you (phew, BTW!). — TickboxPhil, Jun 26 '23 at 14:22

Daniel Kettemann · Answer 16 · 2020-04-04T10:43:18.927

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For me (using the Ubuntu Subsystem for Windows) the error message changed to:

 Permissions 0555 for 'key.pem' are too open

after using chmod 400. It turns out that using root as a default user was the reason.

Change this using the cmd:

 ubuntu config --default-user your_username

edited Apr 04 '20 at 10:43

answered Dec 02 '18 at 04:30

Daniel Kettemann

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score 6 · Answer 17 · edited Jul 31 '19 at 10:26

6

I got same issue after migration from another mac. And it blocked to connect github by my key.

I reset permission as below and it works well now.

chmod 700 ~/.ssh     # (drwx------)
cd ~/.ssh            
chmod 644 *.pub      # (-rw-r--r--)
chmod 600 id_rsa     # (-rw-------)

edited Jul 31 '19 at 10:26

habla2019

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answered Jul 28 '19 at 03:59

Jeff Gu Kang

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I got the same error with these: ```Permissions 0644 for '.../...pub' are too open. It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others. This private key will be ignored.``` – demokritos May 24 '21 at 09:12

Nigrimmist · Answer 18 · 2022-11-07T10:40:58.200

for Windows :

Strange, but UI tweaks, described here before did not helped me.

But this solved the issue :

Open PowerShell under admin rights
Go to directory with your keys (using cd command)
Enter commands one by one

:

$path = ".\{your private key file name}" //for example "myKey"

Then remove your explicit permissions by typing:

icacls.exe $path /reset

Then assign to current user read-permission:

icacls.exe $path /GRANT:R "$($env:USERNAME):(R)"

Then remove inheritance:

icacls.exe $path /inheritance:r

Hope, will help someone

score 5 · Answer 19 · answered Mar 26 '14 at 22:54

5

what worked for me

chgrp Users FOLDER

chmod 600 FOLDER

answered Mar 26 '14 at 22:54

Jerome Ansia

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chgrp: grupo inválido: «Users» – Mar 03 '15 at 23:00
I tried but keep throwing out 'invalid group `:Users'', why? using Windows 10, powershell – Jia Gao Aug 01 '18 at 11:14
@user1418225 'Users' is locale-dependent, try the answer of thehouse at https://stackoverflow.com/a/28647713/11154841. – questionto42 Mar 12 '21 at 08:55

score 5 · Answer 20 · edited Nov 28 '21 at 02:28

As people have said, in Windows, I just dropped my .pem file in C:\Users\[user]\.ssh\ and that solved it. Although you can do chmod and other command line options from a bash or powershell prompt that didn't work. I didn't change rsa or anything else. Then when running the connection you have to put the path to the pem file in the .ssh folder:

ssh -i "C:\Users\[user]\.ssh\ubuntukp01.pem" ubuntu@ec[ipaddress].us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

score 5 · Answer 21 · answered Apr 09 '21 at 09:47

5

700  folder
644  id_rsa.pub

this works for me.

answered Apr 09 '21 at 09:47

B.Kingsun

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score 5 · Answer 22 · edited May 23 '23 at 00:49

5

Simply use the following:

sudo chmod 600 [Location of Private Key]/[Name of Private Key]
sudo chmod 700 [Location of Folder Containing Private Key]/[Name of Folder Conataining Private Key]
sudo ssh -v -i key.pem ubuntu@instance.re-region-1.compute.amazonaws.com

edited May 23 '23 at 00:49

desertnaut

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answered May 17 '23 at 19:51

Abhishek Swaroop Shrivastava

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score 4 · Answer 23 · edited Nov 26 '21 at 18:17

I keep all my own certificates and keys in one directory, and this works for tools like PuTTY, but I got this too open error message from the scp command. I discovered that Windows already maintains a C:\users\ACCOUNTNAME\.ssh folder having the proper access rights for storing SSH keys. So long as you keep the contents backed up (Windows sometimes deletes it during updates), or create your own folder for ssh keys in your user folder, this will work fine, as only you and the administrators have access to that parent folder.

Be very careful about changing access rights on Windows folders. I did this, and once a day Windows is scanning, reading, and writing all the files on my C: drive, a process that slows the computer for many minutes.

score 3 · Answer 24 · edited Jul 18 '19 at 11:15

Interesting message here. Operating Systems are smart enough to deny remote connections if your private key is too open. It understands the risk where permissions for id_rsa is wide open (read, is editable by anyone).

{One may change your lock first and then open it with the keys he already has}

cd ~/.ssh
chmod 400 id_rsa

While working on the multiple servers (non-production), most of us feel need to connect remote server with ssh. A good idea is to have a piece of application level code (may be java using jsch) to create ssh trusts between servers. This way connection will be password-less. Incase, perl is installed - one may use net ssh module too.

score 3 · Answer 25 · edited Nov 26 '21 at 05:02

3

The other trick is to do that on the downloads folder. After you download the private key from AWS EC2 instance, the file will be in this folder,then simply type the command

ssh-keygen -y -f myprivateKey.pem > mypublicKey.pub

edited Nov 26 '21 at 05:02

Bazer Con

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answered Aug 25 '20 at 14:48

Mitchell

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score 3 · Answer 26 · edited Dec 01 '21 at 02:53

3

I am using Windows 10 and trying to connect to EC2 instance via SSH. Rather than using Cygwin for Windows, try using Git Bash. After doing chmod 400 for key I am able to SSH into the EC2 instance, but the same is not working for me from Cygwin. Windows treats the .pem file as coming from internet and blocks it, even disabling inheritance doesn't work.

I converted the file to .ppk format and it's working fine from PuTTY also, but it's not working from Cygwin.

edited Dec 01 '21 at 02:53

karel

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answered Apr 03 '21 at 16:25

Ashu

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Problems using ssh in Cygwin can be due to ssh not being installed in Cygwin. The default path in Cygwin includes the Windows version of ssh, so if you type "ssh ..." in Cygwin you might assume that the ssh command is one that (should go) with Cygwin. But if ssh is not installed in Cygwin, typing "ssh ..." invokes the Windows version instead. – Thomas Hedden Dec 17 '21 at 15:33

score 3 · Answer 27 · answered Jul 07 '22 at 11:46

3

In addition to the accepted answer, if you have done all the suggested means, and you are using "wsl" ubuntu on windows, you can append "sudo" to your ssh command e.g

sudo ssh -i xxx.pem xxxx@xxxx.compute-1.amazonaws.com

answered Jul 07 '22 at 11:46

Akinfemiwa olayode

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score 2 · Answer 28 · edited Nov 26 '21 at 08:39

I tried 600 level of permission for my private key and it worked for me.

chmod 600 privateKey 
[dev]$ ssh -i privateKey user@ip

On the other hand,

chmod 755 privateKey 
[dev]$ ssh -i privateKey user@ip

was giving below issue:

Permissions 0755 for 'privateKey' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.
Load key "privateKey": bad permissions

Leena · Answer 29 · 2021-09-09T07:38:36.823

2

I was getting this issue on WSL on Windows while connecting to AWS instance. My issue got resolved by switching to classic Command prompt. You can try switching to a different terminal interface and see if that helps.

edited Sep 09 '21 at 07:38

answered Feb 19 '21 at 19:06

Leena

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score 2 · Answer 30 · answered Mar 19 '21 at 13:00

In my case the issue was a whitespace too much.

ssh -i mykey.pem  ubuntu@instace.eu-north-1.compute.amazonaws.com

but

ssh -i mykey.pem ubuntu@instace.eu-north-1.compute.amazonaws.com

worked fine. The problem is that the whitespace is taken as part of the username.

score 1 · Answer 31 · answered Apr 02 '18 at 15:53

1

I have came across with this error while I was playing with Ansible. I have changed the permissions of the private key to 600 in order to solve this problem. And it worked!

chmod 600 .vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key

answered Apr 02 '18 at 15:53

vildhjarta

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score 1 · Answer 32 · answered Jul 26 '20 at 21:06

For Windows 10 this is what I've found works for me:

Move your key to the Linux file system: mv ~/.ssh /home/{username}
Set the permission on that key: chmod 700 /home/{username}/.ssh/id_rsa
Create a symbolic link to the key: ln -s /home/{username}/.ssh ~/.ssh

This happens if you have set your home directory (~) to be stored in Windows instead of Linux (under /mnt/ vs /home/).

score 1 · Answer 33 · edited Nov 26 '21 at 22:51

1

PuTTY can do the work on windows 10. It generates a public key using a private key as input.

Download PuTTY
Install PuTTY. Two applications come upon the installation: putty config, putty key gen
Launch puttyGen
Click load and select a private key file. Please note, you need to rename your private key file with .ppk extension, e.g. private-key.ppk

edited Nov 26 '21 at 22:51

Henry Ecker

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answered Aug 25 '20 at 14:37

Mitchell

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Thanks for trying to help. This is a very old question, about OSX, not Windows, that already has an accepted and highly upvoted answer. – Jelmer Jellema Aug 25 '20 at 15:03

score 0 · Answer 34 · edited Nov 29 '21 at 19:41

0

for Win10 need move your key to user's home dir for linuxlike os you need to chmod to 700 like or 600 etc.

edited Nov 29 '21 at 19:41

i_want_more_edits

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answered Oct 21 '18 at 07:47

Fedulov Oleg

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**for Win10 need move your key to user's home** - this worked perfectly. I was trying giving full path to key and messing with the permissions - did not work. – Sam-T Oct 16 '19 at 00:36

score 0 · Answer 35 · answered Jun 15 '20 at 12:40

0

In my case, I was trying to connect from the Ubuntu app in Windows 10 and got the error above. It could be resolved without any permission changes by running sudo su in the Ubuntu console prior to the actual command

answered Jun 15 '20 at 12:40

Daniel Veihelmann

1,275
10
13

score -2 · Answer 36 · answered Mar 12 '14 at 13:34

-2

I am using VPC on EC2 and was getting the same error messages. I noticed I was using the public DNS. I changed that to the private DNS and vola!! it worked...

answered Mar 12 '14 at 13:34

user3195783

9
1

Amazon recommends chmod 400, and using the public DNS. Refer to documentation here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AccessingInstancesLinux.html – davidryan May 05 '15 at 23:52

ssh "permissions are too open"

36 Answers36

In case you are using WSL on windows

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