GitHub Error Message - Permission denied (publickey)

Question

Anybody seen this error and know what to do?

I'm using the terminal, I'm in the root, the GitHub repository exists and I don't know what to do now.

> git push -u origin master
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

Answer 1

GitHub isn't able to authenticate you. So, either you aren't setup with an SSH key, because you haven't set one up on your machine, or your key isn't associated with your GitHub account.

You can also use the HTTPS URL instead of the SSH/git URL to avoid having to deal with SSH keys. This is GitHub's recommended method.

Further, GitHub has a help page specifically for that error message, and explains in more detail everything you could check.

Answer 2

I know about this problem. After add ssh key, add you ssh key to ssh agent too (from official docs)

ssh-agent -s
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

After it all work fine, git can view proper key, before couldn't.

Answer 3

Did you create a config file in your ~/.ssh directory? It should have contents like these:

Host github.com 
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_rsa

Assuming that you created an ssh key named github_rsa

and uploaded it to GitHub...

NOTE: You must follow this way of explicit configuration if you have more than 1 key (2 and more) in your ~/.ssh/ directory. If you don't specify key this way, then first key in order is taken and used for github authentication, so it depends on the key file name then.

Answer 4

You need to generate an SSH key (if you don't have one) and associate the public key with your Github account. See Github's own documentation.

Answer 5

This happened to me. For some reason my origin got messed up without my realizing it:

Check if your settings are still correct

git remote -v

the url needs to be something like ssh://[email protected]/YourDirectory/YourProject.git; if you don't see [email protected], use

git remote set-url origin git://github.com/YourDirectory/YourProject.git

to set it right. Or you could use the github app to check and set the Primary Remote Repository url in the settings panel of your particular repository.

Answer 6

Assuming you are connecting GitHub over SSH, you can run below command to confirm this.

$git config --get remote.origin.url

If you get a result has following format [email protected]:xxx/xxx.github.com.git, then you should do the following.

Generate a SSH key(or use existing one). if you had one, you just need to add your key to the ssh-agent (step 2)and to your GitHub account(step 3).

below are for those who don't have SSH key.

Step 1 Generating public/private rsa key pair.

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

You'll be asked to confirm where to save the SSH key and what passphrase you want to use.

Step 2 Add your key to the ssh-agent

• Ensure ssh-agent is enabled

  $eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

• Add your SSH key to the ssh-agent:

  $ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Step 3 Add your SSH key to your account

$sudo apt-get install xclip

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

Then add the copied key to GitHub

Go to Settings->SSH keys(Personal settings side bar)->Add SSH key->fill out form(key is on your clipboard, just use ctrl+v)->Add key

After going through above steps, you should solve the permission problem.

Reference Link: Generating SSH keys.

Answer 7

Issue solved if you change the ssh access to https access to the remote repository:

git remote set-url origin https_link_to_repository

git push -u origin master

Answer 8

First, we need to check for existing ssh keys on your computer. Open up Terminal and run:

ls -al ~/.ssh

#or

cd ~/.ssh
ls

and that will lists the files in your .ssh directory

And finally depending on what you see (in my case was):

 github_rsa  github_rsa.pub known_hosts

Just try setting up your RSA and hopefully that will solve your "git push origin" issues

$ ssh-keygen -lf ~/.ssh/github_rsa.pub

NOTE: RSA certificates are keys-paired so you will have a private and a public certificate, private will not be accessible for you since it belongs to github (in this case) but the public is the one you might be missing when this error happens (at least that was my case, my github account or repo got messed up somehow and i had to "link" the public key, previously generated)

Answer 9

Another solution :

create the SSH keys, type ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]". This will create both id_rsa and id_rsa.pub files.

Add the id_rsa to ssh list on local computer: ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa.

After generating the keys get the pubkey using :

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 

you will get something like :

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 

ssh-rsa AAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAACAQCvMzmFEUPvaA1AFEBH6zGIF3N6pVE2SJv9V1MHgEwk4C7xovdk7Lr4LDoqEcqxgeJftwWQWWVrWWf7q9qCdHTAanH2Q5vx5nZjLB+B7saksehVOPWDR/MOSpVcr5bwIjf8dc8u5S8h24uBlguGkX+4lFJ+zwhiuwJlhykMvs5py1gD2hy+hvOs1Y17JPWhVVesGV3tlmtbfVolEiv9KShgkk3Hq56fyl+QmPzX1jya4TIC3k55FTzwRWBd+IpblbrGlrIBS6hvpHQpgUs47nSHLEHTn0Xmn6Q== [email protected]

copy this key (value) and go to github.com and under the setting (ssh and pgp key) add your public key.

Answer 10

I was getting this error. Turns out I had just upgraded OSX to Sierra and my old key was no longer registered.

At first I thought it was "Upgrading to macOS Sierra will break your SSH keys and lock you out of your own servers"

But I had sidestepped that one. Turns out I just had to re-register my existing key:

ssh-add -K

And type the passphrase... done!

Answer 11

this worked for me:

1- remove all origins

git remote rm origin  

(cf. https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-remote.html)

*remote : "Manage the set of repositories ("remotes") whose branches you track.

*rm : "Remove the remote named . All remote-tracking branches and configuration settings for the remote are removed."

2- check all has been removed :

git remote -v  

3- add new origin master

git remote add origin [email protected]:YOUR-GIT/YOUR-REPO.git

that's all folks!

Answer 12

In case you are not accessing your own repository, or cloning inside a cloned repository (using some "git submodule... " commands):

In the home directory of your repository:

$ ls -a

1. Open ".gitmodules", and you will find something like this:

[submodule "XXX"]
    path = XXX
    url = [email protected]:YYY/XXX.git

Change the last line to be the HTTPS of the repository you need to pull:

[submodule "XXX"]
    path = XXX
    https://github.com/YYY/XXX.git

Save ".gitmodules", and run the command for submodules, and ".git" will be updated.

2. Open ".git", go to "config" file, and you will find something like this:

[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = true
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
    ignorecase = true
    precomposeunicode = true
[remote "origin"]
    url = https://github.com/YYY/XXX.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master
[submodule "XXX"]
    url = [email protected]:YYY/XXX.git

Change the last line to be the HTTPS of the repository you need to pull:

    url = https://github.com/YYY/XXX.git

So, in this case, the main problem is simply with the url. HTTPS of any repository can be found now on top of the repository page.

Answer 13

Make sure ssh-add -l shows a fingerprint of an SSH key that's present in the list of SSH keys in your Github account.

If the output is empty, but you know you have a private SSH key that works with your github account, run ssh-add on this key (found in ~/.ssh. It's named id_rsa by default, so you'll likely run ssh-add id_rsa).

Else, follow these instructions to generate an SSH key pair .

Answer 14

I was using github earlier for one of my php project. While using github, I was using ssh instead of https. I had my machine set up like that and every time I used to commit and push the code, it would ask me my rsa key password.

After some days, I stopped working on the php project and forgot my rsa password. Recently, I started working on a java project and moved to bitbucket. Since, I had forgotten the password and there is no way to recover it I guess, I decided to use the https(recommended) protocol for the new project and got the same error asked in the question.

How I solved it?

1. Ran this command to tell my git to use https instead of ssh:

   git config --global url."https://".insteadOf git://
   

2. Remove any remote if any

   git remote rm origin
   

3. Redo everything from git init to git push and it works!

PS: I also un-installed ssh from my machine during the debug process thinking that, removing it will fix the problem. Yes I know!! :)

Answer 15

I think i have the best answer for you, your git apps read your id_rsa.pub in root user directory

/home/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

That's why your key in /home/your_username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub can't be read by git. So you need to create the key in /home/root/.ssh/

$ sudo su
$ ssh-keygen
$ cd ~/.ssh
$ cat id_rsa.pub

Then copy the key in your github account. It's worked for me. You can try it.

Answer 16

OK there are few solutions to this one, some of them might already been mentioned but just to keep them together:

• make sure you keys are present, by default another ~/.ssh/ folder, i.e. id.rsa and id.rsa.pub

• make sure the keys have correct permissions, you can run chmod:

  chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

  chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

• make sure the content of you public key (id_rsa.pub) matches the one uploaded in the remote repository configuration

• Finally fix the problems with ssh agent: ssh-add

Some more info: https://itcodehub.blogspot.com/2015/01/ssh-add-problems-with-ssh-agent-and.html

Answer 17

If you have already created an SSH key and are still getting the error it is because you need to give the user permissions to read and write to the folder you are cloning into. To do this, sudo chmod 777 <your_folder_name_here>". Of course, this is after you have generated an SSH key and you are still getting this error. Hope this helps future users.

Edit

To add on to this use admin in Windows if you're using the git bash

Answer 18

I had the same issue recently. This might help if you need a fix immediately, but this needs to be done every time you re-start your system

From terminal, run : ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Enter your system password and that should work.

Answer 19

I would like to add some of my findings:

If you are using GitBash, then make sure the SSH key is stored in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.

By Default GitBash searches for ~/.ssh/id_rsaas default path for SSH key.

Even the file name id_rsa matters. If you save your SSH key in another filename or path, it will throw the Permission Denied(publickey)error.

Answer 20

Allow write access for the key (identity) and then click Add key

^{If on Windows check for more details in here.}

Answer 21

For me I tried this -

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

then I run

ssh-add ~/.ssh/path-to-the-keyfile

and for generating the key you can run

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

this will generate the pair of keys (Public and private).

you can store this key to github for more read this Adding a new SSH key to your GitHub account

I hope it will help others :)

Answer 22

Yes I too had this question :/ I was going to push my project to Github in HTTP type(not in SSH type). I had to enter my username and password in each push. So first I entered code relevant to below type

git remote add origin [email protected]:YOUR-GIT/YOUR-REPO.git

and I got

[email protected]: Permission denied (publickey). fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

So however I solved my problems by doing below methods

1. git remote rm origin remove your git remote repository
2. git remote now check whether your remote remote repository have been removed

URL = https://github.com/<username>/<repository>.git

3. git remote add origin URL Again add your URL to make remote repository
4. git push -u origin master
   You can push your content to remote repository. In here as you use "-u" with the command you make a tracking branch and with the help of tracking branch in the remote repository you won't to tell git what branch you push in the next steps :)
   And here if you use linux git will ask username and password before push the content. And give your relevant credentials.

For prevent to give username and password in each push you have to change git config

For list your git config - git config --global --list
you will see

user.name=<your_username>
user.email=<your_email>

So you have to add credential.helper attribute to your git config to this

5.git config --global --add credential.helper store add this to your terminal Now you can add new item to your files then git add., git commit -m "<message>", git push
And now too there git will request your username and password and that will be the last time. And for next git pushes git won't request username and password from you :)

Answer 23

If you are using the GitHub for Mac UI, check preferences to make sure you're logged in.

Answer 24

I was getting same error during 'git push'. In client side I had two origin and master. I removed one, then it worked fine.

Answer 25

you can use Https url to login

i guess you are trying to login with ssh url when you say git push if it as asking only password consider you are connecting through ssh.better you use http url.

Answer 26

Also in ubuntu, even though there was already SSH key entered in settings in BitBucket, I got this problem. The reason was, I was trying the following:

sudo git push origin master

Not sure why, but it got solved by using

git push origin master

No sudo used.

Answer 27

I was having a similar problem to @Batman. However, because I was running this under /usr/local/src/projectname, running without sudo was not an option.

Just add the -E flag to preseve the environment (your ~/.ssh/ path).

$ sudo -E git clone git@your_repo

From man sudo:

-E, --preserve-env Indicates to the security policy that the user wishes to pre‐ serve their existing environment variables. The security policy may return an error if the user does not have permis‐ sion to preserve the environment.

Answer 28

Once scenario where this will happen is when you follow GitHub instructions after you create your repository. Git will instruct you to add your remote with something like this.

git remote add origin [email protected]:<user>/<project>.git

Replace what's in <> with values related to your account.

The solution is to remove the .git suffix. Add the remote as follows:

git remote add origin [email protected]:<user>/<project>

Answer 29

tl;dr

in ~/.ssh/config put

PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes=+ssh-dss

Scenario If you are using a version of openSSH > 7, like say on a touchbar MacBook Pro it is ssh -V
OpenSSH_7.4p1, LibreSSL 2.5.0

You also had an older Mac which originally had your key you put onto Github, it's possible that is using an id_dsa key. OpenSSH v7 doesn't put in by default the use of these DSA keys (which include this ssh-dss) , but you can still add it back by putting the following code into your ~/.ssh/config

PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes=+ssh-dss

Source that worked for me is this Gentoo newsletter

Now you can at least use GitHub and then fix your keys to RSA.

Answer 30

I found this page while searching for a solution to a similar error message using git pull on a remote host:

$ git pull
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

I was connected from my local machine to the remote host via ssh -AY remote_hostname. This is not a solution to OP's question, but useful for others who come across this page, so posting it here.

Note that in my case, git pull works fine on my local machine (that is, ssh key had been set up, and added to the GitHub account, etc). I solved my issue by adding this to ~/.ssh/config on my laptop:

Host *
     ForwardAgent yes

I then re-connected to the remote host with ssh -AY remote_hostname, and git pull now worked. The change in the config enables to forward my ssh keypair from my local machine to any host. The -A option to ssh actually forwards it in that ssh session. See more details here.