Can't connect SSH with paramiko to a Google Compute Engine instance

Question

I found a lot of similar questions here in SO, but any of them helped me, even this problem seems to be simple.

I'm trying to connect to a remote Google Compute Engine instance through SSH (I want to use SFTP) using paramiko. Below is my code:

        client = paramiko.SSHClient()
        client.load_system_host_keys()
        client.connect('External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel', username='myuser')
        stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command('ls')
        for line in stdout:
            print('... ' + line.strip('\n'))
        client.close()

With this code, I have the error

PasswordRequiredException: Private key file is encrypted

When I tried client.connect('External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel', username='myuser', password='') the error is:

BadAuthenticationType: ('Bad authentication type', [u'publickey']) (allowed_types=[u'publickey'])

My SSH key to access Google Compute engine has no password. I can use the gcloud compute ssh instance-name and also access SFTP throug Filezilla without problems.

As I said, I tried a lot of alternatives found here in SO, but any of them helped me. Below are 3 other versions of the code:

Using key

    key = paramiko.RSAKey(data=base64.b64decode(b"""AAAAB3Nza..."""))
    client = paramiko.SSHClient()
    client.get_host_keys().add('External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel', 'ssh-rsa', key)
    client.connect('External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel', username='myuser', password='')
    # I got the key using ssh-keyscan `External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel`in my local machine

Using another lib

    key = paramiko.RSAKey(data=decodebytes(keydata))
    cnopts = pysftp.CnOpts()
    cnopts.hostkeys.add('External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel', 'ssh-rsa', key)

    with pysftp.Connection('External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel', username='myuser', cnopts=cnopts) as sftp:
        with sftp.cd('../directory'):
            sftp.get('remote_file')'''

Using the ssh key file

    self.client = paramiko.SSHClient()
    self.client.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
    self.client.connect(hostname="External_IP_Get_In_GCE_panel", username="myuser", key_filename=os.path.expanduser('~/.ssh/ssh_key_file'), password='') # also tried ssh_key_file.pub

In all this versions (and some others) I tried to use password='', password=None and not send password argument. The results is always the same erros above.

Any tip about what I'm doing wrong?

Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-15T21:51:46.410

2

The key is encrypted, you need a password (and presumably non-empty so) to decrypt the private key, i.e.

key = paramiko.RSAKey(data=base64.b64decode(b"""AAAAB3Nza..."""), password='my key password')

The server there only allows public key authentication, so giving password to client.connect does not make any sense.

edited Sep 15 '17 at 21:51

answered Sep 15 '17 at 21:46

Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні

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As I said, the SSH key was created without password, so I don't have anything to fill this parameter and `password=''` with blank string raises the same error of encrypted private key. – James Sep 15 '17 at 22:13
1

@James it seems to have a password - perhaps you're confusing "no password" with "sshagent remembers the password" – Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні Sep 15 '17 at 22:15
@James or try an empty password in call to `RSAKey`. – Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні Sep 15 '17 at 22:17
I created the key and didn't type anything for the passphrase, so I'm pretty sure that this key does not have password. Anyway, I'll try your solution and maybe create a new key with password to avoid this type of problem. Thanks for your help. – James Sep 18 '17 at 12:50

Can't connect SSH with paramiko to a Google Compute Engine instance

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