SSH: "Permissions 0644 for 'my_key.pub' are too open."
Solution 1
You may be running ssh-keygen on the wrong file. ssh-keygen -y
operates on a private key file. ".pub" files normally contain the public key. You probably have a file there named my_key
, without any extension, and it ought to be mode 0600. That is the file which should contain the private key.
To directly answer your question, SSH keys are normally used to permit connecting to remote servers without a password. Possession of the private key would permit someone to log into your account on any system which accepts the key. ssh-keygen and the other ssh utilities require private key files to have restricted permissions because the files are sensitive and need to remain secure.
Solution 2
The only command you need to run is chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
. That's it.
This changes the permissions on the file so that the owner (you) can read and write it, which will remove the error message you receive.
Solution 3
0644
in not supposed to be too open for a public key, but is too open for your private key.
Your private key should have permission 0600
while your public key have permission 0644
.
By the way, you should also take care of the permission on .ssh
folder. It should has the permission 0700
, so that only you, the owner, has control over the folder.
As to your home directory, write permission is not supposed to be granted to group and others.
Run chmod go-w /home/username
should fix that.
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user2820379
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
user2820379 over 1 year
Why is
0644
i.e.-rw-r--r--
too open for a SSH key? Also I could not find any false permissions on the.ssh
directory (0700
) or the home directory (0731
).Btw I'm getting this error when testing the paraphrase of a key via
ssh-keygen -y -f my_key.pub
Best regards
-
niftylettuce over 6 yearsAbsolutely do not follow these instructions. This is NOT what you should do. This will also reset all home directory permissions. You should ONLY be modifying the
.ssh
folder and theid_rsa
file itself, not your entire home directory!