How to make the script automated to take password on its own?

Question

I have a script that is doing sftp some files from one server to another, like inside the script script.ksh I have the below lines;

sftp [email protected]_address << EOF
cd path
put file1
bye
EOF

When I am running the script like;

./script.ksh

It is asking for password like below;

Password:

Here I have to pass the password manually as this is not a password less connection.

I want to make this script automated, that when the Password prompt will occur, then it should take the password on its own. Can anyone have any suggestion please.

Solution 1

Try this:

#!/usr/bin/expect
spawn sftp [email protected]_address:/path/to/folder
expect "Password:"
send "PASSWORD\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "put file1\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "bye\n"

or if you don't want to dedicate the whole script to expect:

#!/bin/sh
expect << 'EOS'
spawn sftp [email protected]_address:/path/to/folder
expect "Password:"
send "PASSWORD\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "put file1\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "bye\n"
EOS

Solution 2

By design ssh doesn't allow 'embedding' of passwords - that's because it has a mechanism for non-interactive auth using public-private key pairs.

So I would suggest you consider that as your first port of call. Usually it's as simple as:

• run ssh-keygen on your client.
• add the id_rsa.pub to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on your server.

If that's not an option for some reason, then the fallback option is expect which allows you to do send a password to ssh.

Comments

[Admin]

sshpass is also an option

[Admin]

@Naitree please can you let me know where and how to use this sshpass command in my script?

[Admin]

If security is not a concern, just prepend sshpass -p password before your sftp command. That should do it.

[Admin]

@Naitree Thanks for your help, but I checked in my unix box sshpass is not installed, I also don't have a privilege to install it. Do you have any other idea other than sshpass? Thanks

[Admin]

Sorry, you have to install something or use ssh key.

[PriB]

Is there any other method? because I can't make the connection password less. I don't have the permission to do that. I want that, while connecting it should ask password, and then automatically the script will take the password to login in.

[Sobrique]

Ssh key pairs are better for prod, because they are more secure. You should talk to your sysadmi.

[Sobrique]

If you don't have permission to do password less auth, what makes you think that bypassing that is a good idea?

[ajlowndes]

I just noticed this was a question from a year ago...

[roaima]

That looks suspiciously like FTP.

[roaima]

How is this different to an answer already given?

[SDsolar]

The only answer close is @sobrique but the ssh-copy-id -i command was omitted. It requires doing more research to find out how to add the public key. My answer just plain shows the two commands that need to be run. Short and sweet, and it works. No need for expect.