Issue on adding SSH key to GitHub

23
votes

I have got an issue that seems about the format of SSH key used by GitHub. I used Git Bash to generate a new SSH key:

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

Then, I copied the key to the SSH section in settings of my GitHub account page. However, it came with the issue notice as follows:

Key is invalid. It must begin with 'ssh-ed25519', 'ssh-rsa', 'ssh-dss', 'ecdsa-sha2-nistp256', 'ecdsa-sha2-nistp384', or 'ecdsa-sha2-nistp521'. Check that you're copying the public half of the key

Following that, I edited my SSH key starting with ssh-rsa and my email address at the end. However, the issue is still there.

What is the solution to this?　

8
gitgithubsshssh-keysecdsa
Looks like it has happened with you, because you've tried to add your private key instead of public one – user1016265
make sure it's the id_rsa.pub – densityx
stackoverflow.com/a/68192584/7942242 – crg

8 Answers

11
votes

Simply follow these steps and you will set up your SSH key in no time:

  • Generate a new ssh key (or skip this step if you already have a key) ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your@email"

  • Once you have your key set in home/.ssh directory (or Users/<your user>.ssh under windows), open it and copy the content

How can I add the SSH key to the GitHub account?

  • Login to the GitHub account

  • Click on the rancher on the top right (Settings)

    GitHub account settings

  • Click on the SSH keys

    SSH key section

  • Click on the Add SSH key

    Add SSH key

  • Paste your key and save

And you are all set to go :-)

34
votes

ssh-keygen will generate you a pair of keys, one private and one public. It sounds like you uploaded the wrong one. GitHub wants the public key, typically here: ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

4
votes

If you are using a Mac and are typing out GitHub's instructions (e.g. Generating a new SSH key and adding it to the ssh-agent, you're probably typing and only tabbing (e.g. auto-completing) to:

$ pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa

and not

$ pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

With the former you're actually copying, and trying to paste your private key.

I hope that saves you some time.

2
votes

Another way to copy the public key to the clipboard:

clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
2
votes

I ran into the same problem and it turns out it was due to there being a - in the comment. GitHub apparently doesn't like -, but _ is OK though.

2
votes

Open file ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. Then open it with an editor and copy the public key to your GitHub account.

1
votes

Add SSH key to Github

Check if you have a key?

ssh-add -l

If not? then follow steps to generate key

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C your__gmail

Now for copy the key use xclip tool or just goto file and copy

sudo apt install xclip
xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
  • Now goto github.com and goto settings
  • select SSH and GPG keys
  • New SSH key
  • Enter "your__choice__name" in title field...
  • Paste your public key into the Key field
  • Click Add SSH key
0
votes

For IntelliJ IDE,

Go to IntelliJ IDEA -> Preferences... enter image description here