Question

SSH Keys - passphrase requested at every login

Posted November 16, 2014 3.5k views

Created droplet with Ubuntu 14.04 32 bits with SSH keys.
Using putty client on Windows 7

Every time I log as root, the passphrase is requested (and the logging is successful).

There are no error messages in /var/log/auth.log

Screen output:
Using username “root”.
Authenticating with public key “rsa-key-blah…”
Passphrase for key “rsa-key-blah…”:
Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-37-generic i686)

root@demo:~# ls -l /root/.ssh
total 4
-rw——- 1 root root 381 Nov 15 20:22 authorized_keys

Any idea?

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Chris72
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2 answers
kamaln7 November 16, 2014

The passphrase is request because you created your SSH key with a passphrase, so PuTTy needs to decrypt the SSH key first before being able to use it.

To remove the passphrase, run puttygen.exe, and click on the Load button. Select your private key, make sure that the “passphrase” field in empty and then click on the “Save private key” button. That should create a copy of your SSH key without a passphrase.

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SWright April 21, 2015

Good day,

Is there a way to go back after a droplet has been created and an SSH Key added and add a passphrase to the Key?

Thank you.

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