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gboudrea's avatar
gboudrea
Occasional Contributor
3 years ago

How to export SSH private key using CLI?

So I now store my SSH private keys in 1Password.
One problem I have with that is that some clients really need the private key files on disk to work (Sequel-Ace, to name one).
So I thought I could create a simple command-line script that would use op to export my SSH private key to a file, and then delete that file a few seconds later, allowing those "legacy" clients to connect using my private key.

But I just can't find how to use op to export my private key as an OpenSSH private key.
If I download the key from the 1Password 8 client, I get a text file that starts with -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
But if I use the CLI like this : op read op://Personal/id_ed25519/'private key', I instead get a key that starts with -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----

So, how can I export an OpenSSH private key using CLI?

Or is there another way to export my SSH keys to disk?

Thanks

1Password Version: CLI 2.0.0
Extension Version: N/A
OS Version: macOS 12.3

CLI
  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Thanks Plivox!
    Will add this to the issue.

    Best,
    Horia

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Hey @Plivox - just to clarify - do you get that error message when running this command? ssh-add <(op read op://Personal/key/private_key)

    Error loading key "...": invalid format

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Thanks gboudrea and @andrepereira ,

    I'll file a bug to ensure that there is a way to retrieve a formatted version of the private key.

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    @"Justin.Yoon_1P" version 2.4.1

  • gboudrea's avatar
    gboudrea
    Occasional Contributor
    3 years ago

    ```
    gb@MacBook-Pro:~ $ op --version
    2.4.1

    gb@MacBook-Pro:~ $ op read op://Personal/id_ed25519/'private key'
    -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
    ...
    -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
    ```

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Hey @andrepereira

    Thank you for responding anyway!

    I'd like to file an internal issue for this, but before I do, may I just confirm that you are on the latest version of op?

    We introduced some improvements to SSH Key item rendering in v2.3.0.

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    What I ended up doing was to create another entry with document type and copied the private key from the ssh type entry, then doing this:

    ssh-add <(op document get 'private_key')

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Same here, @"Justin.Yoon_1P" though you didn't ask me, given no one responded yet, I confirm running the command you suggested I get the following error:

    Error loading key "/var/folders/y_/yfcgp8dj37b14jrlq2pq0rqm0000gq/T//.psub.Cz9bsuaXei": invalid format

    Maybe the CLI could provide something similar to the --otp flag to export the private key suitable to be imported by ssh-add?

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Hey @Plivox - just to clarify - do you get that error message when running this command? ssh-add <(op read op://Personal/key/private_key)

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    Same problem the exported key is not a private ssh key.