CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sshopenssh
graywolf
graywolf

Reputation: 7490

Specifying password in .ssh/config file?

Is it possible to specify password inside my .ssh/config file? Something like

Host host1
    User user1
    Pass password

All resources I found recommend to use keys instead, but that's not an option for me, I want to use password.

If it's not possible with stock openssh, are there any patches laying around that would allow this?

EDIT: reason I need to use password is to get access to network drives when connection to cygwin sshd from linux.

Upvotes: 55

Views: 100243

Answers (3)

hobs
hobs

Reputation: 19259

You can force the remote ssh server to request your password for the ssh-copy-id:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_keyfilesuffix.pub -o PubkeyAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=password username@server_ip_or_domain

I needed to do this when my home VPN (tailscale) firewall allows only 1 attempt to log in with an SSH key, and that fails when the client tries your ssh keys first. But the options -o PubkeyAuthentication=no and -o PreferredAuthentications=password break this catch 22.

For subsequent logins I was able to use the key (don't forget to switch to the private (not .pub) key file when trying to log in remotely over ssh:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_keyfilesuffix username@server_ip_or_domain

And these can be added to your config so you don't have to remember them later:

~/.ssh/config:

Host servernickname
  Hostname server_ip_or_domain
  User username
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_keyfilesuffix

Upvotes: 0

sohmahmood
sohmahmood

Reputation: 31

I have this in my ~/.bashrc

function ssh() {
  if [[ "$1" == "server1" ]]; then
    command sshpass -p 'PASSWORD1' ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no root@SERVER1_IP
  elif [[ "$1" == "server2" ]]; then
      command sshpass -p 'PASSWORD2' ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no root@SERVER2_IP
  elif [[ "$1" == "server3" ]]; then
      command sshpass -p 'PASSWORD3' ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no root@SERVER3_IP
  else
    command ssh "$@"
  fi
}

This way it acts like you would ssh something in your config "ssh server1".

Upvotes: 2

Jakuje
Jakuje

Reputation: 25956

No, it is not possible. The configuration options are described in the manual page for ssh_config and there is no such option as Pass.

There are no patches (at least I didn't see any during the years yet), because it is very insecure to store passwords in plain text. Using some obfuscated method will not make it any more secure and real encryption would add here a lot of complexity (and a new encryption passphrase).

Really, use the SSH keys. They are cool, secure and easy to use. Just two commands to set up and third to use.

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -P ""
$ ssh-copy-id server
$ ssh server

Upvotes: 38

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