Multiple users successfully authenticated, but SSH keys not working on Windows 11

Question

I'm trying to set multiple GitHub accounts for multiple projects I'm working on. It just won't work.

First of all, I'm on Windows 11.

• I've created the keys, they're in C:/Users/User/.ssh/...

• I created a config file inside the same /.ssh folder and this is the content:

  Host github-user1
     HostName github.com
     User git
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-user1
  
  Host github-user2
     HostName github.com
     User git
     IdentityFile C:\Users\User\.ssh\github-user2
  

  Notice I tried two ways of pointing to the key files. I also tried '/c/Users/User/.ssh/', which also does not work.

• I added the public keys to both github accounts

• I added the keys to the ssh agent

• I edited the local repo git config file to use the correct remote origin and user, it looks like this:

  [core]
      repositoryformatversion = 0
      filemode = false
      bare = false
      logallrefupdates = true
      symlinks = false
      ignorecase = true
      sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/github-user1
  [user]
      name = user1
      email = user1@domain.com
  [remote "origin"]
      url = git@github-user1:user1/repositoryName.git
      fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
  [branch "master"]
      remote = origin
      merge = refs/heads/master
  

• I tested authentication like so:

  ssh -T github-user1
  

  This worked, the user was successfully authenticated, for both users in both repositories

• I checked the config with 'git config --list' and this was the output:

  diff.astextplain.textconv=astextplain
  filter.lfs.clean=git-lfs clean -- %f
  filter.lfs.smudge=git-lfs smudge -- %f
  filter.lfs.process=git-lfs filter-process
  filter.lfs.required=true
  http.sslbackend=openssl
  http.sslcainfo=C:/Program Files/Git/mingw64/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
  core.autocrlf=true
  core.fscache=true
  core.symlinks=false
  pull.rebase=false
  credential.helper=manager
  credential.https://dev.azure.com.usehttppath=true
  init.defaultbranch=master
  core.sshcommand=C:/Windows/System32/OpenSSH/ssh.exe
  core.repositoryformatversion=0
  core.filemode=false
  core.bare=false
  core.logallrefupdates=true
  core.symlinks=false
  core.ignorecase=true
  core.sshcommand=ssh -i ~/.ssh/github-user1
  user.name=user1
  user.email=user1@domain.com
  remote.origin.url=git@github-user1:user1/repositoryName.git
  remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
  branch.master.remote=origin
  branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
  

  Looks correct to me...

• Finally I test fetching 'git fetch' and this is what I get:

  ssh: Could not resolve hostname github-user1: Name or service not known
  fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
  
  Please make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists.
  

  This happens with both users, that both authenticate correctly. No matter what I try, this is all I get.

Last thing I tried is 'ssh -vvv github-user1' to see whether it could connect, it did. But, this rule was in the output:

debug1: Will attempt key: wrongUser@domain.com RSA SHA256:blahblahblah agent

So appearantly it tries to connect with the wrong user. Also, if I prompt for this:

ssh -T git@github.com

The same wrong user comes up. So, where does this come from? I did not configure this anywhere. Before I started to configure ssh keys, I logged in and out of both accounts a few times, so I guess something got saved somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. Anyone any idea where to look?

Also, I noticed that on github, it says the key as never been used:

I did delete the git user in the Windows References, so that is not the problem.

Answer 1

Ok, so here's my solution. As I already mentioned, when I tested ssh -T git@github.com I got the wrong user authenticated. I did not define git@github.com as a host anywhere. So I decided to set user1 as a default github.com host like so:

Host github.com
   HostName github.com
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-user1

Host github-user2
   HostName github.com
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-user2

The local repository git config file now looks like this:

[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = false
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
    symlinks = false
    ignorecase = true
    sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/github-user1
[user]
    name = user1
    email = user1@domain.com
[remote "origin"]
    url = git@github.com:user1/repositoryName.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

Also, I forgot to add the line sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/github-user2 in the local repository git config file for user2, so I added that as well. The config for user2 now looks like this:

[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = false
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
    symlinks = false
    ignorecase = true
    sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/github-user2
[user]
    name = user2
    email = user2@domain.com
[remote "origin"]
    url = git@github-user2:user2/repositoryName.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

These steps fixed the problem for me. I can now fetch from git on both remote repositories and I can see in both github accounts that my keys are being used.