Passwordless SSH from MacBook to Merlin

[jnsie]

I'd like to SSH to my router without a password from a Mac(book pro). I'm new to Merlin and would appreciate if anyone could explain how to achieve this? So far I've tried generating keys on my Mac, and populating the Authorized Keys section in the Web UI. I've also attempted to copy the key over via ssh-copy-id. I'm still prompted for a password when I attempt to SSH in. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[JDB]

You’ve put the public key (contents of id_rsa.pub) in the web UI keys box right?

The ssh-copy-id should also work, but would be wiped out after a reboot.


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[jnsie]

You’ve put the public key (contents of id_rsa.pub) in the web UI keys box right?

The ssh-copy-id should also work, but would be wiped out after a reboot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for your response! Good info re: ssh-copyid. Yes, I'm copying the public key into the web Authorized Keys box. I just started from scratch with the same results. Below are the steps I followed a moment ago:

• ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "<my email address>"
• eval $(ssh-agent -s)
• ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
• cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
• Copy the contents to the Authorized Keys section under the System>Service section in Merlin.
• Attempted to ssh as admin@192.168.0.58 (router IP...) but still got prompted for password

 

[JDB]

Seems reasonable to me! Tried rebooting the router?

Or manually adding the key to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys on the router? Or indeed see if your key is in there at all! If it’s missing then either the format it’s going into the web UI is wrong or maybe it needs a reboot to push it from NVRAM to that file.


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[jnsie]

Seems reasonable to me! Tried rebooting the router?

Or manually adding the key to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys on the router? Or indeed see if your key is in there at all! If it’s missing then either the format it’s going into the web UI is wrong or maybe it needs a reboot to push it from NVRAM to that file.


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Well I'll be damned. The reboot worked. Can't tell you how many times I've instructed others to reboot their PC/router/device over the years. Thanks for the tip - that helped greatly!