"Key is invalid" message on GitHub

Question

I have generated SSH keys for a new server installation according to the procedure outlined here. However, when I copy the contents of id_rsa.pub to my keys list on GitHub, I get the error message "Key is invalid. Ensure you've copied the file correctly."

The generated key is valid, and I am copying it exactly as is (all in one line with no whitespace at the beginning/end).

Anybody have an idea what could be going on?

Answer 1

I came here because I had the same problem. From your question, I realized that I was copying the contents from the wrong file, without the .pub extension (it was my private key, i.e. the id_rsa file, which should be kept private at all times!)

From a MAC:

vi ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Copy exactly from the end (with be the last letter of your email domain extension) of the block of characters to the beginning, which starts with ssh-rs ...

If it doesn't work, you are surely not copying properly.

It worked.

If you are on Windows, use notepad and copy-paste as described above.

I hope that helped.

Answer 2

Here are some steps that are not at all clear when copy/pasting your public key. (For the record, I used Putty Key Generator for my keys.)

• On the first line, enter ssh-rsa.
• Make sure you add one space after ssh-rsa
• When you copy/paste the key into the Key textbox it should preserve the \n characters (x0A). If you are using Notepad on Windows, you won't see these new lines until you copy the text to Github.

Notice on this screenshot, there's a space after ssh-rsa (See the cursor.) The public key text also includes three \n characters, so you can see the public key text bumps down to the next line three times in the textbox.

Answer 3

I try several ways, but none of them helps(my os is ubuntu). Then I thought if I can print the content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub by using command "more".

I sorry than I have no reputation to post images! when i have, i will post it!

Here is a url where you can see the image:

I copied the content from the command line, and it WORKED!!!

Answer 4

I know this is question is a cpl years old now, but if someone in 2018 encounter this:

then below is a no-brainer:

my problem was I tried to copy the private key

id_rsa

instead of public key content

id_rsa.pub

as my SSH gitlab repository key, so after you:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" -b 4096

please remember about the .pub file extension to copy from:

• OSX:

  pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

• Linux:

  xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

• Windows PowerShell

  cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | clip

this makes perfect sense, because you should always only share your public key, not the private one :)

Answer 5

Someone suggested to use $ vi ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub however it didn't work for me.

So instead of that , I used $ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub command on windows machine to print out on the terminal then copy it.

Answer 6

If you have indeed copied the content of your id_rsa.pub key (in one continuous line), the result should look like (from The GitHub ssh help page):

The OP louism confirms a copy-paste issue:

• For a very obscure reason, copy-pasting from emacs removed the \n after ssh-rsa, and that was causing the problem.
• Copy-pasting from vi solved the problem.

Answer 7

Recommended by GitHub

Copying the SSH-KEY :

I worked with xclip to copy the id_rsa.pub key, like so:

1. Install xclip

sudo apt-get install xclip

2. Copy with xclip

xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

---

Good Luck.

Answer 8

In windows,

Just Copy the naked key data from key file and remove new lines. Write this below things in dialogue box to solve your problem. ssh-rsa Key

NOTE : There is space between ssh-rsa and key

And you are done.

Answer 9

Just for those looking in the future, another common issue is that word-wrapping. For example, if you run cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub it could wrap lines, thus adding extra \ characters at each line break. Remove these and your key should work fine.

Answer 10

I was having the same issue, despite copying the public key from cat output directly from the terminal (Cmder/ConEmu). It seems that the method that you use to copy the public key seems to make a difference. Here is a way to check:

$ ssh-keygen -l -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
4096 SHA256:...

Then paste the key that fails into a new file, and try to verify that:

$ ssh-keygen -l -f test.pub
test.pub is not a public key file.

In my case I had been copying the key from terminal output using cat; instead getting the key from vim worked. Here is way to open the key in vim with word wrap enabled:

$ vim "+set wrap" ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

I suspect that the terminal emulator may have something to do with it as I haven't had this issue with Terminal.app.

Answer 11

If you use putty (puttygen), copy this!!!!

Answer 12

If you using Sublime you can see ssh-key correctly. Check if there is any id_rsa.pub

ls -al ~/.ssh

If it is in place open it with sublime text

sudo subl /home/user_name/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Then copy and paste your public ssh key.

Answer 13

In my case, I had to add an extra white rule after my e-mail (after the entire key string) before it got accepted. I found this out by accident, after trying to copy my ssh key as entered on Gitlab.

pbcopy from my pub key straight form the command line didn't work. The copy from gitlab with the extra white rule at the end, did the trick.

Answer 14

I just had this issue. Super frustrating. I figured my situation might have affected the casue of the problem. I am using a tablet, trying to setup the key on githubs site through my tablet browser (Chrome) and I am copying the key from an ssh app connected to my remote linux server.

What ended up happening is that somehow when I copied the key to the browser, it introduced a number of line breaks. Not only that, but it also removed a character from each point where a new line was inserted.

So to get it to work, I had to manually find each new line break, then hunt for that part of the key to find the missing character. I then added the character and removed the new line. After I hunted down each and every change, the key worked fine.

By the way, I did not add any new line breaks myself, such as the one mentioned by others after the ssh-rsa.

Hopefully this helps others. I have no idea why it happened. Silly that copying to the clipboard would alter the text copied. Oh, I also copied it right out of Vim.

Answer 15

If you are using bash for windows as your terminal and you are copying via shift + highlighting + ctrl-c, then this solution might work for you:

1. After copying the key and pasting it into notepad:

2. Now go to Edit > Select All or Ctrl-A

3. The large amounts of blue areas are whitespace. You need to delete them with either the backspace or the delete key. Leave the whitespace that in the green circles.

4. You should now be able to copy and paste this edited version into github.

Answer 16

It's common issue we face while generating the key. While the SSH generating, we will get two diff files one is id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. here the file with pub extension is the public key holder file. You must copy the content from this file and add to the Github.

NOTES: 1. public key file content starts with 'SSH-RSA' 2. end with your Github email id. ex: if you registered Github with @gmail.com then the pub file has the specified email id at the last

Answer 17

if using vs code

code ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub will open .pub file copy it to github

Answer 18

To Copy the entire content of id_rsa.pub to clipboard:

Run > pbcopy ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Answer 19

I was trying to upload my public key and was getting "Invalid Key" message.My format was not proper as there was extra spaces at the end of the key. It should be in format : ssh-rsa <public-key>

Answer 20

If you are on linux or mac, just do the following:

$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

The output should be in the form like below:

ssh-rsa somerandomcharacters user@domain

Final step is to copy the contents and paste it in your destination

Answer 21

Copying the ssh public key into clipboard is mainly the trick here and the best way to do it is right from terminal. You must output this key onto the terminal by following command cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.public and press enter. The ssh public will be displayed on the GitBash terminal screen and then you just need to copy it carefully by selecting from last charachter of your email to the begining of key i.e ssh rsa... I spent days and then came to this solution in end.

Answer 22

My laptop is on macOS Big Sur version 11.3.1 and the ssh-keygen -t rsa generated a very long key with [email protected] at the beginning. ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 worked; it created a key with ssh-rsa algorithm.

Answer 23

Just try installing wps2019 and open the .pub on wps2019 and copy the code and paste it :