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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

    Thank you for pointing this out, @jrmoulton!
    I have opened an internal ticket for investigating this.
    We'll keep this thread updated with anything that may come out of it.
    Once again, thanks for reporting this, and let us know if we can help with anything else!

    Best,
    Horia

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    When I load the ssh private key from op I get the correct key. I use the openssh ssh-agent (not 1password) and I can just pipe the key to ssh-add. ssh-add <(op read op://Personal/key/private_key)

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    3 years ago

    I have this same issue