SSH asking for passphrase on public key with no passphrase set
When you use the IdentityFile option in your ~/.ssh/config you point to the private, not the public, key.
From man ssh_config:
IdentityFile
Specifies a file from which the user's DSA, ECDSA or DSA authentication identity is read. The default is ~/.ssh/identity for protocol version 1, and ~/.ssh/id_dsa, ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa for protocol version 2.
So, your ~/.ssh/config entry should look like:
Host github.com
Hostname github.com
User git
PubkeyAuthentication yes
IdentityFile /home/me/.ssh/githubWe had this problem, and it was a cut-and-paste error. A single % symbol had been added to the end of the key file (so the last line was -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----% ). There was no error or debug info or anything else to suggest that the key was the wrong length or badly formatted, but ssh asked for a passphrase.
In my case, the problem was the my SSH client does not support ED25519 keys. The solution is to create an RSA key and use it instead.
This problem occurs with OpenSSH < 6.5 (run ssh -V) and PuTTY < 0.68.
This can be seen in the following output of ssh -vvv:
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ssh-rsa,ssh-dss
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-sha1,[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-sha1,[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit:
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit:
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: reserved 0
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: [email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ssh-ed25519
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected]
The first block describes what the client supports, and the second what the server supports. As you can see, there's no mention of 'curve25519' in the top half, indicating that the client does not support that.