OpenSSH using private key on Windows ("Unprotected private key file" error)
FYI: Rename the "test.pem" to your original pem file name.
Setting path variable
$path = ".\test.pem"Reset to remove explicit permissions
icacls.exe $path /resetGive current user explicit read-permission
icacls.exe $path /GRANT:R "$($env:USERNAME):(R)"Disable inheritance and remove inherited permissions
icacls.exe $path /inheritance:r
Note:
- You can replace the file name as per your file name. In this case it is test.pem.
- You must be in the same directory where your file is located.
- You must open power shell as administrator.
For windows 10 store the key file in User Ex: C:\Users\MANNEM.ssh
Make sure permission of private key file will be as shown in the image
I did it on Windows 10 and it fixed the issue as you can see in the image as well.
You should change the owner of the file(which contains the private key)to your username with full access. and then remove the other usernames that have access to that file.
right-click on the file which contains the private key and clicks on properties and then Security tab> Advanced by clicking on the change button you can change the owner to your username. (if you don't know the name of your username run: "echo %USERNAME%" in command prompt.) Change>Advanced...>Find Now
remove all Permission entries except the one you just added
click on Disable inheritance> Convert inherited permissions... then remove all Permission entries except the one you just added.
enter image description here
You can use icacls in Windows instead of chmod to adjust file permission. To give the current user read permission and remove everything else (Which will allow openssh to work), this works nicely:
Command Prompt:
icacls .\private.key /inheritance:r
icacls .\private.key /grant:r "%username%":"(R)"
In PowerShell, you can get icacls to work by wrapping the command in a call to cmd.exe
icacls .\private.key /inheritance:r
start-process "icacls.exe" -ArgumentList '.\private.key /grant:r "$env:USERNAME":"(R)"'