0

Suddenly I get the "unprotected private key file" warning when trying to ssh. There is a server I connect to every few days and have never had this issue before, suggesting that somehow the permissions on my id_rsa file changed since the last time I used ssh.

I install the AppCenter updates frequently and wonder whether one of these updates could have been responsible? Has anyone else experienced this? Else I may have been hacked somehow...

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The warning is about the permissions of your private ssh key on your local host (~/.ssh/id_rsa) and you might want to try to reset the permissions to their defaults with

chmod 700 ~/.ssh/
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Improve this answer
2
  • Yes, I did that, but my question was why the permissions on id_rsa changed. I am pretty sure id_rsa was at 600 when I last successfully ssh'd and somehow it changed to 644 since then. The directory .ssh/ probably was not at 700 but it is now so thank you for that. Still wondering whether I got compromised or whether a system update caused the permissions change.
    – D. Hancock
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 17:21
  • 1
    System updates do not write anything in your home directory normally.
    – lemonslice
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 21:06

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.