Ssh – scp using a password on the command line

cygwinpasswordscpssh

I am trying to write a script that will deploy a build created on my desktop machine (windows/cygwin) to a machine in my test environment (linux).

I would like to use scp to copy the build to the target machine. The only account on the target machine is root, and I cannot create a special user for this task. The root user is unable to log in using an ssh key (I suspect that this is configured on the ssh server, but I do not know which configuration options control this). At any rate, I cannot change the configuration of the ssh server.

My desktop machine uses Cygwin, and I have ssh installed. What I need is the command-line-fu that will allow me to put the password on the command line.

I am aware of the dangers of having a plaintext password in a shell script, but that is not a concern here.

Best Answer

IMO, your best bet is to use some sort of expect script. My usual tricks for throwing a password at a command like this aren't working in my Cygwin installation.

Related Solutions

SSH Authentication – How to Make SSH Fail Rather Than Prompt for Password

For OpenSSH there is BatchMode, which in addition to disabling password prompting, should disable querying for passphrase(s) for keys.

BatchMode

If set to “yes”, passphrase/password querying will be disabled. This option is useful in scripts and other batch jobs where no user is present to supply the password. The argument must be “yes” or “no”. The default is “no”.

Sample usage:

ssh -oBatchMode=yes -l <user> <host> <dostuff>

Ssh – How to automate SSH login with password

Don't use a password. Generate a passphrase-less SSH key and push it to your VM.

If you already have an SSH key, you can skip this step… Just hit Enter for the key and both passphrases:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Copy your keys to the target server:

$ ssh-copy-id id@server
id@server's password:

Now try logging into the machine, with ssh 'id@server', and check-in:

.ssh/authorized_keys

Note: If you don't have .ssh dir and authorized_keys file, you need to create it first

to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.

Finally, check to log in…

$ ssh id@server

id@server:~$

You may also want to look into using ssh-agent if you want to try keeping your keys protected with a passphrase.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

SSH Authentication – How to Make SSH Fail Rather Than Prompt for Password

Ssh – How to automate SSH login with password

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