Forgot password to id_rsa [duplicate]

I forgot the password to my ssh. I am planning to remove the files (id_rsa, id_rsa.pub and known_hosts) in the directory and starting from scratch. I haven't been using ssh since the whole heartbleed thing and I've cleared out the stuff in the keys before but I think I did it wrong.

My question is how do I recreate the files properly and set up ssh to stop asking me for passwords when I'm connecting to git or other things?

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1 Answer

You need to remove your SSH public/private keys, recreate them, and then add your newly created public key to the servers and online services you use.

• Remove your SSH public/private keys:

   rm ~/.ssh/id_rsa*

• Recreate the keypair, choosing a new passphrase:

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

• Add the newly created private key to your OS X Keychain to store the passphrase and manage unlocking it automatically:

   ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/id_rsa

• Copy the public key to the OS X clipboard for adding to web services like GitHub, etc.

   cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy

• Add your newly created public key to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file of the remote server. Be sure to ensure the correct permissions of both the remote ~/.ssh folder (700) and ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (600). You may want to investigate using ssh-copy-id to ease this process.

Edited on 11/18/2021

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