I have connected to a remote Ubuntu host from Windows using VS Code and using it for remote development. Often times I open different code repositories in VS Code but every time I have to open a different folder despite having the connection established the VS Code ask for password.
It seems that once we are commented to a remote host then successive opening of different folder from same host should not prompt for password.
Is there any setting I am missing or should do to resolve this or save password.
I'm assuming you're connecting to an ssh remote.
There are two ways to authenticate an ssh connection, via password and via public/private key. When using the latter you don't need to enter the password each time.
To use the public/private keys here's what you have to do:
You first need a pair (public/private) of ssh keys. On windows you can use ssh-keygen to generate them for you and put them in the default ssh config folder ( ~/.ssh/)
You then have to configure the remote server to allow your ssh key, you can do this in two ways:
with the ssh-copy-id command if available (I think on windows it's not there, but you can try)
by manually add your public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to the.ssh/authorized_keys file on the host machine
Here's a link to know more about passwordless logins via ssh: https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/passwordless-ssh
Open git bash on Windows
cd .ssh
ssh-copy-id -i id_ed25519.pub your-username#your-server
Related
My workflow is: I ssh into machine A from my local, then into machine B from machine A.
I wish to develop on machine B using VScode remote functionality but this two-level ssh doesn't look straight forward in VScode and a google search didn't yield much info on it either.
Is there a way to do this?
Thanks!
The key word is ProxyJump here.
ssh hostb -o ProxyJump=hosta
For using it with vscode, you should edit your .ssh/config
HOST my_alias_name_for_host_a
hostname ip_or_hostname
user my_username_on_host_a
HOST my_alias_name_for_host_b
hostname ip_or_hostname
user my_username_on_host_b
ProxyJump my_alias_name_for_host_a
vscode will work without even knowing that there is an intermediate host
I am using the Remote-SSH extension in Visual Studio Code to connect to a remote machine. This remote machine is protected by Duo's two-factor authentication. When I SSH in a terminal (outside of VS Code), I'm able to log-in perfectly - the terminal prompts me through the 2FA process. However, inside VS Code when I'm using the extension, I am not able to log-in. After typing in my SSH hostname and ID, the VS Code interface prompts me for my password over and over again, and does not proceed beyond that point.
Has anyone encountered this issue before? I'd love to know if there is an existing solution. Unfortunately, 2FA is managed by my company and I can't turn it off.
I run into the same problem and fixed it by using SSH ControlMaster for Single Singe-On.
If you connect to the relevant machine using <user_name>#<host_name> you can simply add the following to your ~/.ssh/config:
Host <nickname>
User <user_name>
HostName <host_name>
ControlMaster auto
ControlPath ~/.ssh/%r#%h:%p
If you now open up a new session in your terminal running ssh <nickname> you will be asked for the password and the 2FA key. But all other subsequent ssh sessions (including svn, rsync, etc. that run over ssh) will piggyback off the initial connection without the need for re-authentication.
You can now in VS Code, select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host... from the Command Palette (F1, ⇧⌘P) and simply enter: <nickname> and ControlMaster will automatically connect you using the already standing connection.
In my case, the nickname that I choose is "ody". After connecting VSC's Remote Development extension shows the following in the bottom left corner and lets me browse the files on the remote machine.
From the FASCR:
Note that all subsequent connections are dependent on the initial connection — if you exit or kill the initial connection all other ones die, too. This can obviously be annoying if it happens accidentally. It’s easily avoided by setting up a master connection in the background:
ssh -CX -o ServerAliveInterval=30 -fN <nickname>
The -fN make it go into the background and sit idle, after authenticating. (C for compression,Y for X forwarding, and o ServerAliveInterval=30 to prevent dropped connections have nothing to do with the ControlMaster but are almost always helpful.)
Note that all port forwarding, including X display forwarding, must be setup by the initial connection and cannot be changed.
Got to settings in VS Code and enable this setting, remote.SSH.showLoginTerminal. This pulls up the terminal so that sign in via 2FA that way.
You can use ~/.ssh/config file to configure your hostnames and keys. But I don't know if there is a way to save passwords for convenience.
I am using vscode to connect to a remote host. I use Remote-SSH (ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh) extension to do so. Every time I want to connect to the remote host, I need to enter the password.
Is there a way to save the ssh password to vscode?
To setup password-less authentication for ssh on Visual Studio Code, perform the following steps.
These examples assume the following (replace with your actual details)
Host: myhost
Local User: localuser
Remote User: remoteuser
Remote User Home Dir: remoteuserhome
SSH Port: 22
I'm using a Mac so Windows will be a bit different but the basics are the same
Tell VS Code and your machine in general how you will be connecting to myhost
Edit:
/Users/<localuser>/.ssh/config
Add:
Host <myhost>
HostName <myhost>
User <remoteuser>
Port 22
PreferredAuthentications publickey
IdentityFile "/Users/<localuser>/.ssh/<myhost>_rsa"
Next generate a public and a private key with something like OpenSSL
ssh-keygen -q -b 2048 -P "" -f /Users/<localuser>/.ssh/keys/<myhost>_rsa -t rsa
This should make two files:
<myhost>_rsa (private key)
<myhost>_rsa.pub (public key)
The private key (<myhost>_rsa) can stay in the local .ssh folder
The public key (<myhost>_rsa.pub) needs to be copied to the server (<myhost>)
I did it with FTP but you can do it however you wish but it needs to end up in a similar directory on the server.
ON THE SERVER
There is a file on the server which has a list of public keys inside it.
<remoteuserhome>/.ssh/authorized_keys
If it exists already, you need to add the contents of <myhost>_rsa.pub to the end of the file.
If it does not exist you can use the <myhost>_rsa.pub and rename it to authorized_keys with permissions of 600.
If everything goes according to plan you should now be able to go into terminal and type
ssh <remoteuser>#<myhost>
and you should be in without a password. The same will now apply in Visual Studio Code.
Let's answer the OP's question first:
How to 'save ssh password'?
Since there is no such thing as "ssh password", the answer to "how to save the remote user password" is:
This is not supported by VSCode.
VSCode proposes to setup an SSH Agent in order to cache the passphrase (in case you are using an encrypted key)
But if the public key was not properly registered to the remote account ~/.ssh/authorized_key, SSH daemon will default to the remote user credentials (username/password).
It is called PasswordAuthentication, often the remote user password.
And caching that password is not supported for SSH sessions.
It is only supported by a Git credential helper, when using HTTPS URLs.
(it defers to the OS underlying credential manager)
But I don't know of a remote user password cache when SSH is used.
As Chagai Friedlander comments, the answer to the original question is therefore:
No, but you can use SSH keys and that is better.
Speaking of SSH keys:
"ssh password": Assuming you are referring to a ssh passphrase, meaning you have created an encrypted private key, then "saving the ssh password" would mean caching that passphrase in order to avoid entering it every time you want to access the remote host.
Check first if you can setup the ssh-agent, in order to cache the passphrase protecting your private key.
See "VSCode: Setting up the SSH Agent"
This assumes you are using an SSH key, as described in "VSCode: Connect to a remote host", and you are not using directly the remote user password.
Using an SSH key means its public key would have been registered to the remote account ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
This section is the workaround the OP ended up accepting: registering the public key on the remote user account, and caching the local private key passphrase worked.
For those trying to connect through Vscode Remote SSH Extension steps provided at https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/troubleshooting#_ssh-tips)
For Windows(Host) --> Linux(Remote)
Create an SSH .pub key in your windows ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
Copy the contents of the .pub key (default path C:\Users\username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)
SSH into Remote machine and append the contents of the pub key in authorized keys echo "pub-key" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
I have a remote ssh server on which I want to do remote developement.
My public key is added to the authorized keys on the server and my private key is passphrase protected.
I added the remote host as described here using ssh user#host -i ~/.ssh/key
But whenever I try to open a new VSCode window on the remote host it fails and I see in the log that the connection timed out, which is expected because I don't get asked for my private-key passphrase.
I read this post on remote development using ssh and I searched on google but couldn't find any hints to what I could do to enable/enter ssh-key passphrase while connecting to remote host.
I know I can connect to the remote using a non-passphrase-protected key but I'm not asking for that, I want to know if it's possible to connect to a remote host from VSCode using a passphrase protected key.
If your key is not the default one, that means you need a ~/.ssh/config entry in which you specify your SSH connection parameters:
Host myserver
Hostname host
User user
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/key
The Visual Studio Code Remote Development will automatically read the config file, and when you ask for opening an SSH session, you will see "myserver" entry: if you select it, the SSH session opened will use ~/.ssh/key, the right private key.
Then, as long as your ssh-agent is enabled, and you have entered at least once your passphrase (through a manual ssh myserver), VSCode will use the same agent to get the passphrase when it will need it.
This is what solved it for me, your issue could be different.
In VScode, choose command: Remote-SSH: Open SSH Configuration File...
Choose the location that is offered to you (or create a config file without extension to desired location), for example:
C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\.ssh\config. Make sure you have appropriate permissions.
Prepare you configuration file, for example
Host Custom_Name
HostName example.server.com
User your_user_name
IdentityFile C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\Documents\MobaXterm\home\.ssh\id_rsa
(or wherever you have the private key)
Finally add a custom path to your configuration file. This is what I lacked for long time
{
// add custom configuration file path
"remote.SSH.configFile": "C:\\Users\\[USER_NAME]\\.ssh\\config",
// Other settings
// omit comma after *config"* if that is your last setting
}
Now it should ask for passphrase as opposed to password.
P.S. Here is a lot of useful information with the setup, especially with the keys that I have omitted for brevity.
I'm using vscode remote ssh heavily and each time, I have to start it regularly and and run the commmand to start a new instance with Remote SSH
Is there a way to use some arguments to VsCode shortcut to start directly in Remote SSH mode?
Thanks
Found this link that includes a section about connecting to a remote from terminal (or using a shortcut)
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/troubleshooting#_connect-to-a-remote-host-from-the-terminal
SSH remote needs to already have been manually setup (ssh config file and public/private key).