ssh connection without password prompt.

You need to make sure .ssh is NOT group/world writable, ssh client (server) doesn't let
you use the keys if it is group/world readable (the know_hosts file can be readable by any one!).

are you using keys or password login?

for keys you need to enshure that on both sides ~/.ssh is owned by the proper user and has permission 700 or 500, same applies to key and know_hosts file in ther: 600 or 400

And take care that ~/.ssh is not symlinked somehow (some ssh versions are really picky)

Still not working. I am using keys. Below are the steps I followed:

1. Generate the keys using ssh-keygen. I've used an empty passphrase.
bsed24:/apps/informatica> ssh-keygen -t dsa

2. Copy the contents of id_dsa.pub to authorized_keys
bsed24:/apps/informatica> cat id_dsa.pub > authorized_keys

3. Changed the permissions as below:
bsed24:/apps/informatica> ls -ld .ssh                      
drwx------   2 informat users         96 May 11 11:13 .ssh/

bsed24:/apps/informatica/.ssh> ls -lrt                              
total 8                                                              
-rw-------   1 informat users        605 May 11 11:11 id_dsa.pub    
-rw-------   1 informat users        668 May 11 11:11 id_dsa        
-rw-------   1 informat users        605 May 11 11:13 authorized_keys
-rw-------   1 informat users        451 May 11 11:14 known_hosts    

bsed24:/apps/informatica> ssh infodev date  
informat@infodev's password:                
Thu May 12 11:12:52 EDT 2005                

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
sathiyakum.

silly question: did you add the ida_dsa.pub to the remote server's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

infodev is not remote server. It is localhost. Wouldn't the line "bsed24:/apps/informatica> cat id_dsa.pub > authorized_keys" do it OR perhaps I did not understand ahoffmann's question right.

Going back a few steps, why do you want to do this?  It doesn't make any sense to ssh to the localhost as the same user.

>>It doesn't make any sense to ssh to the localhost as the same user.

It you want to use ssh login without passwd between different box, have a look at the
instructions in the following docs:

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/user_notes/user_notes.cgi?id=86
http://docsun.cites.uiuc.edu/sun_docs/C/solaris_9/SUNWaadm/SYSADV6/p45.html
http://linuxproblem.org/art_9.html

> cat id_dsa.pub > authorized_keys" do it OR perhaps I did not understand ahoffmann's question right.
yes you didn't get it right. Or do you mena that you used localhost as remote server?
id_dsa.pub has to be in authorised_keys on the *remote* server

Which all leads back to my last question.  Why would you want to ssh to the localhost as the same user?  I can't think of any sane reason for doing this.

I want to use ssh to localhost itself for the following reason:

I want to run "ssh  <username>@<localhost> <command>"  without typing a password. Username could be same user or different user but the command has to be run with the corresponding user's profile.

I was not successful with sudo or su as I couldn't find a way to run the command without typing a password. That's why I went with ssh  option.

Would passwordless ssh option work for running commands. If so, are there any drawbacks. I am still not successful with the above-mentioned ssh command. Any thoughts.

Thanks,
Kumaran.

your authorized_keys file has to be in the .ssh directory, here is what happens when I duplicate your process:

[user@monitor ~]$ ssh-keygen -t dsa
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_dsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
09:...:e5 user@monitor.mydomain.net
[user@monitor ~]$ cd .ssh/
[user@monitor .ssh]$ ls
authorized_keys  id_dsa  id_dsa.pub  known_hosts
[user@monitor .ssh]$ cat id_dsa.pub >>authorized_keys
[user@monitor .ssh]$ ssh monitor date
Mon May 23 21:42:21 EDT 2005

I hit enter twice to avoid the passphrase.

HTH,

-t

-XoF- had it, you are trying to use cert based authentication without identifying what cert you want you use.

you need to identify the relivant key for the user@machine by using the -i flag with the /path/to/private/key

so in your case you would need to type:

infodev:/apps/informatica/.ssh> ssh infodev -i /path/to/private/key date

HTH

-t

Is there any suspicious setting for AuthorizedKeysFile in /etc/ssh/sshd_config ???

At "05/12/2005 08:21AM PDT" You have all set up very well...

interested