SSH cannot authenticate to git@github.com

Question

Recently, I sign up for a free plan on Github.com. I follow their instructions to generate a ssh key to add to my account. However, when I try ssh -v git@github.com, I get this error:

debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 277
Agent admitted failure to sign using the key.
debug1: Trying private key: /home/phuongnd08/.ssh/identity
debug1: Trying private key: /home/phuongnd08/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

When I look into the error, I see a funny thing here, that is the .ssh/id_rsa was not tried, just .ssh/identity and .ssh/id_dsa were tried.

How can I fix this error? Thanks

Answer 1

Check the file permissions on your key. If they are too liberal it may be refusing to use the key. Make sure they only have perssion for you (0700).

Answer 2

You can use ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa to fix this.

Answer 3

After trying all these answers with no luck, the following command solved it for me:

unset SSH_AUTH_SOCK

Answer 4

If it doesn't already exist, you generate the ssh key first:

ssh-keygen -t rsa 

now copy this key, it'll be in this dir ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, open with notepad, paste this key in the "add ssh key" section in your github account! That's it!

Answer 5

If you're using Github enterprise (Self hosting) it would be worth checking to see if the site is reachable. Applies to Github also.

Ran into the same issue in Intellij and when I went to check if the RSA public key was saved in my profile I found out the site returned a server error.