4 ms·

I like to use `pbcopy` when exporting public keys to external services like GitHub. `cat ~/.ssh/mykey.pub | pbcopy`

by agmm 3y ago

_rend 3y ago
You can even simplify this further by feeding `pbcopy` the key directly using file redirection instead of a pipe: `pbcopy < ~/.ssh/mykey.pub` (I use this all the time myself!)
wincy 3y ago
I love this tool too! except one time I quickly typed `cat ~/.ssh/mykey | pbcopy` And sent it straight away to my coworker on Slack. I then spent the rest of the day making a new private key and adding my new pubkey to all of the 1000+ servers I had root access to. I mean we had tools to help but it still wasn’t fun. With great power/convenience comes the potential to do dumb things at lightning speeds!
- oxygen_crisis 3y ago
  I might start naming my private key files ~/.ssh/keyname.PRIVATE after hearing that story...
  - plorkyeran 3y ago
    That's not a bad idea. I've never actually made the same mistake, but I have caught it at the last moment and having tab complete not pick the private one first would help.
  - wincy 3y ago
    It would have avoided it! I was using tab and forgot to select .pub as you correctly surmised. I was a junior dev at the time and all the seniors got a good laugh out of it, and I use it as a cautionary tale about trying to be TOO overeager and efficient.
- gunapologist99 3y ago
  Userify would have made that pretty painless (all it really seems to do is update the authorized_keys across all of your servers every minute or so)
  - superq 3y ago
    also userify allows you to set up sudo access on some of the servers and not others, so that'd take care of the other root-access issue you have. (sudo also provides auditing/logging controls that are useful in a multi-user environment)
- vinay_ys 3y ago
  If you literally have ssh root access to 1000+ servers, using certificates will be more secure and convenient than directly using public key.
- xrisk 3y ago
  put your private key in something like Secretive: https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive

I like to use `pbcopy` when exporting public keys to external services like GitHub. `cat ~/.ssh/mykey.pub | pbcopy`

by agmm 3y ago

I like to use `pbcopy` when exporting public keys to external services like GitHub. `cat ~/.ssh/mykey.pub | pbcopy`

You can even simplify this further by feeding `pbcopy` the key directly using file redirection instead of a pipe: `pbcopy < ~/.ssh/mykey.pub` (I use this all the time myself!)

wincy 3y ago

I love this tool too! except one time I quickly typed `cat ~/.ssh/mykey | pbcopy` And sent it straight away to my coworker on Slack. I then spent the rest of the day making a new private key and adding my new pubkey to all of the 1000+ servers I had root access to. I mean we had tools to help but it still wasn’t fun. With great power/convenience comes the potential to do dumb things at lightning speeds!

oxygen_crisis 3y ago
I might start naming my private key files ~/.ssh/keyname.PRIVATE after hearing that story...
- plorkyeran 3y ago
  That's not a bad idea. I've never actually made the same mistake, but I have caught it at the last moment and having tab complete not pick the private one first would help.
- wincy 3y ago
  It would have avoided it! I was using tab and forgot to select .pub as you correctly surmised. I was a junior dev at the time and all the seniors got a good laugh out of it, and I use it as a cautionary tale about trying to be TOO overeager and efficient.
gunapologist99 3y ago
Userify would have made that pretty painless (all it really seems to do is update the authorized_keys across all of your servers every minute or so)
- superq 3y ago
  also userify allows you to set up sudo access on some of the servers and not others, so that'd take care of the other root-access issue you have. (sudo also provides auditing/logging controls that are useful in a multi-user environment)
vinay_ys 3y ago
If you literally have ssh root access to 1000+ servers, using certificates will be more secure and convenient than directly using public key.
xrisk 3y ago
put your private key in something like Secretive: https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive