Automatically enter SSH password with script

linux shell ssh openssh
user1467855 picture user1467855 · Aug 30, 2012 · Viewed 580.8k times · Source

I need to create a script that automatically inputs a password to OpenSSH ssh client.

Let's say I need to SSH into myname@somehost with the password a1234b.

I've already tried...

#~/bin/myssh.sh
ssh myname@somehost
a1234b

...but this does not work.

How can I get this functionality into a script?

Answer

abbotto picture abbotto · May 24, 2013

First you need to install sshpass.

  • Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install sshpass
  • Fedora/CentOS: yum install sshpass
  • Arch: pacman -S sshpass

Example:

sshpass -p "YOUR_PASSWORD" ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no YOUR_USERNAME@SOME_SITE.COM

Custom port example:

sshpass -p "YOUR_PASSWORD" ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no YOUR_USERNAME@SOME_SITE.COM:2400

Notes:

  • sshpass can also read a password from a file when the -f flag is passed.
    • Using -f prevents the password from being visible if the ps command is executed.
    • The file that the password is stored in should have secure permissions.

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