git push: permission denied (public key)

Question

I'm trying to push a file to a git repo of a friend but errors on public key.

git push origin testbranch
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Where and how do we define public / private keys?

git remote -v returns:

origin  git@github.com:Sesamzaad/NET.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:Sesamzaad/NET.git (push)

Any help is appreciated.

possible duplicate of [github: newbie problems -> Permission denied (publickey). fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3617113/github-newbie-problems-permission-denied-publickey-fatal-the-remote-end) — AD7six, Oct 29 '13 at 14:23
Luan Si Ho's solution worked for me. https://stackoverflow.com/a/43672761/7061796 — Umer Khalid, Jun 14 '21 at 18:08

score 128 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 23 '15 at 20:12

128

I was facing same problem, here is what I did that worked for me.

Use ssh instead of http. Remove origin if its http.

git remote rm origin

Add ssh url

git remote add origin git@github.com:<username>/<repo>.git

Generate ssh key inside .ssh/ folder. It will ask for path and passphrase where you can just press enter and proceed.

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen

Copy the key. You can view your key using. If you hadn't specified a different path then this is the default one.

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Add this key to your github account. Next do

ssh -T git@github.com

You will get a welcome message in your console.

cd into to your project folder. git push -u origin master now works!

edited Sep 23 '15 at 20:12

Eric Leschinski

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answered Sep 02 '14 at 12:44

Shrutee

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I got the welcome message but `git push -u origin master` still doesn't work – Hack-R Nov 14 '16 at 16:56
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Steps `git remote rm` and `git remote add` only was enough in my case. – Stephan Ahlf Mar 16 '17 at 19:35
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I tried it on a Gid Bash "cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub" and "ssh -T git@github.com". I get only "git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey)." Please help. – user2301515 Mar 21 '20 at 06:34
@user2301515 Same problem here. I changed to https and then pushed but when it asks for your password input your personal access token instead (assuming you have one). It pushed then. See https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/getting-started-with-git/managing-remote-repositories#switching-remote-urls-from-ssh-to-https I would still love to know why I cant use my ssh key though. – Frikster Sep 06 '21 at 20:10

score 55 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 16 '19 at 13:29

55

I just had to deal with this issue. @user3445140's answer helped me, but was much more than I needed to do.

Get your public SSH key with cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Copy the key, including the "ssh-rsa" but excluding your computer name at the end
Go to https://github.com/settings/ssh
Add your SSH key

edited Jul 16 '19 at 13:29

SeeYouInDisneyland

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answered Sep 04 '14 at 13:37

steel

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Yes This One Works, I need to add the generated SSH key from My computer to GitHub as explained above in the comment. @user3445140's answer is not complete. – Argho Chatterjee Jul 04 '17 at 09:13
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this is the perfect answer – IssamLaradji Aug 26 '19 at 12:25
this is absolutely the perfect-est answer!! – LiuWenbin_NO. Dec 24 '19 at 11:06
yeah very perfect. Save my day – Zahid Iqbal Aug 08 '21 at 18:26
this one works! – SiXUlm Jan 06 '22 at 20:29

score 25 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 05 '17 at 11:38

25

This worked for me.

first of all, remove current remote :

git remote rm origin

second, add remote through HTTPS but git@xxx :

git remote add origin https://github.com/Sesamzaad/NET.git

then push has worked for me :

git push origin master

edited Jul 05 '17 at 11:38

Mat M

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answered Jul 05 '17 at 07:50

Cloud13th

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Hey thanks. this worked for me. I think this all started when we had a guy come in and "help" us create SSH keys – Daniel L. VanDenBosch Dec 11 '17 at 16:05
i use file credentials and git@ messes things up trying to use a public key.. ty for answer – Dan Bradbury Dec 01 '18 at 05:06

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 20 '20 at 09:17

18

I fixed it by re-adding the key to my ssh-agent.

with the following command:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/path_to_private_key_you_generated

For some reasons it was gone.

edited Feb 20 '20 at 09:17

Wis

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answered May 02 '18 at 17:15

Bennet G.

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`ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/id_rsa` did it for me – Dbz Sep 19 '18 at 20:01
I had to start ssh agent even tho Putty was ont he background doing: `$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"` – Nekeniehl Aug 20 '20 at 15:52

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered May 06 '18 at 20:37

I am running Ubuntu 16.04

Removing the remote origin using

git remote rm origin

setting the http url using

git remote add origin https://github.com/<<Entire Path of the new Repo>>

git push origin master

Above steps successfully added code to repo.

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 13 '16 at 20:13

None of the above solutions worked for me. For context, I'm running ubuntu, and I had already gone through the ssh-key setup documentation. The fix for me was to run ssh-add in the terminal. This fixed the issue.

Source: http://baptiste-wicht.com/posts/2010/07/tip-how-to-solve-agent-admitted-failure-to-sign-using-the-key-error.html

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 18 '15 at 12:45

This worked for me. Simplest solution by far.

If you are using GitHub for Windows and getting this error, the problem might be that you are trying to run the command in the wrong shell or mode. If you are trying to do git push origin master in the regular command prompt or PowerShell, this is the problem.

You need to do it in a git shell. Simply open Github for Windows, right click, and select "Open Shell Here". It looks like a regular PowerShell window, but it's not, which makes it really confusing for newbies to git, like myself.

I hope others find this useful.

Thanks. I Was going nuts because for me `ssh -T git@github.com` worked but not `push origin master`. And that was because I was doing it in a cygwin64 window instead of the git bash thing... — 2072, Jul 07 '19 at 18:36

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered May 25 '19 at 15:58

3

The documentation from Github is really explanatory.

https://help.github.com/en/articles/adding-a-new-ssh-key-to-your-github-account https://help.github.com/en/articles/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent

I think you must do the lasts steps from the guide to proper configure your keys

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

answered May 25 '19 at 15:58

antikytheraton

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I had to do the following after your steps to get it working: git remote set-url origin git@github.com:UserName/AppName.git – Tracy Zhou Jun 12 '19 at 17:29

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

1

You probably have to add your public key to github. https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys

Check this thread: GitHub: Permission denied (publickey). fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Community

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answered Jan 09 '14 at 22:41

Walter B

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 28 '18 at 17:30

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This error happened while using Ubuntu Bash on Windows.

I switched to standard windows cmd prompt, and it worked no error.

This is a workaround as it means you probably need to load the ssh private key in ubuntu environment if you want to use ubuntu.

answered Oct 28 '18 at 17:30

Andrew

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I recently moved to windows and was facing this issue using powershell in vscode and git-bash. I copied the url directly from github into the windows-cmd and magically worked, then I copied the same command that worked in cmd to git-bash and it worked again with no explanation. – futureapricot May 15 '21 at 19:44

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 19 '19 at 17:47

Solution : you have to add you ssh key in your git-hub profile. Follow steps to solve this problem

Right Click Folder you want to push in git
Select git-bash here problem
Write command ssh-keygen by this command your key is generated
Copy the key from cmd or go to (C:/User/your_user/.ssh/)
open id.rsa with notepad.
Copy your key
Now go to your git-hub profile
Go to settings
select SSH and Gpg keys
select New ssh key option
add window-key in the title
Paste your key in the description part below title field
Save

Now you are ready to push your folder

Now go to folder you want to upload
right click on the folder
Select git bash here
git init
git add README.md
git commit -m "first commit"
git remote add origin https://github.com//
git push -u origin master

Hope this will be Helpful for you

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 20 '20 at 15:20

If you have your private key(s) in ~/.ssh and have added them to https://github.com/settings/ssh, but still are unable to commit to a Github repo added via ssh, make sure they are added to your ssh-agent:

ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/[PRIVATE_KEY]

You can add multiple private keys for multiple servers (e.g. Bitbucket & GitHub) and it will use the correct one when dealing with git.

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 08 '21 at 10:45

1

If ssh key is already generated in your git account, then just do the following-

ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/id_rsa

answered Aug 08 '21 at 10:45

Natasha

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 14 '21 at 02:50

1

May be, if another answers don't help try to run git remote -v

If you see:

origin  https://github.com/<name/repo.git> (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/<name/repo.git> (push)

(origin starts with https or http)

Run git remote set-url origin git@github.com:<name/repo.git>

and than git push again

answered Aug 14 '21 at 02:50

Женя Гуль

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This doesn't answer the question. It already says it's using that form instead of https. And if on https, it skips the publickey check altogether and instead asks for the username/password. – Jerven Clark Aug 14 '21 at 06:42

score 1 · Answer 15 · edited Aug 24 '21 at 02:32

I can ssh the connect git@github.com, and return the successful window, but cannot push anything to github, the server return that:

Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository

how I solve the question:

delete the origin and re-add it:

git remote rm origin

git remote add origin git@github.com:<xxxx>/<xxxx>.git

git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

the terminal returns:

Enumerating objects: 3, done.
Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Delta compression using up to 16 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 321 bytes | 321.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
To github.com:ShowTimeWalker/MyFirstTrailForGit.git
 * [new branch]      main -> main
Branch 'main' set up to track remote branch 'main' from 'origin'.

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 21 '22 at 21:03

To make things clear, there are two ways to connect to your git repository from your PC:

Using SSH which has the following format : git@github.com:username/repository-name.git
Using HTTPS which has the following format: https://github.com/username/repository-name.git

You have the absolute right to choose whichever is best for you.

If you choose to go for (1) then you have to establish the SSH connection between your PC and git account (find the steps from the answers above to know how to do it).

Alternatively, you can choose (2) and connect via HTTPS which does not require you to establish SSH on your PC, so you won't get the permission denied (public key) issue as long as your git account is already verified on the PC and connected.

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez · Answer 17 · 2014-11-05T16:54:45.923

0

If you already have your public key added to the GITHUB server there are other solutions that you can try.

In my case the GIT PUSH was failing from inside RUBYMINE but doing it from the Terminal window solved the problem.

For more solutions visit this page https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/4730

edited Nov 05 '14 at 16:54

answered Nov 05 '14 at 16:44

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Oct 17 '17 at 23:08

In order to deploy to your friend's repo you need to add your public key to the repository's deploy keys.

Go to the repository, go to deploy keys, and add the id_rsa.pub (or whatever yours is named) to "deploy keys".

I believe adding the key to your own account only lets you write to repositories that your account created. If it was created by an organization you need to add the key to the repo's deploy keys.

https://developer.github.com/v3/guides/managing-deploy-keys/

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 26 '18 at 07:23

I faced the same problem.Ask your friend to add you as a collaborator by going to his repo settings and adding a new collaborator.

You will recieve an invite email ,accept it.Then you are good to go. Just make sure that you have added right remote.

score 0 · Answer 20 · edited Nov 29 '19 at 22:28

0

You need to fork the project to your own user repository.

Then add origin:

git remote add upstream your-ssh-here
git fetch upstream
git branch --set-upstream-to=upstream/master master

edited Nov 29 '19 at 22:28

Boken

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answered Mar 10 '19 at 11:45

Tal Hakmon

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score -1 · Answer 21 · answered Apr 27 '20 at 07:50

-1

If you are getting 403 error here is the solution:

 The requested URL returned error: 403

As you are having your account registered with another account so you need to remove the github credentials from windows

control panel > user accounts > credential manager > Windows credentials > Generic credentials

then remove the Github keys

answered Apr 27 '20 at 07:50

MJ X

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I am not using windows. The OP doesn't say what he's using, either. – Garrett Mar 19 '21 at 19:43

git push: permission denied (public key)

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