1 .\" $OpenBSD: ssh-add.1,v 1.87 2024/06/17 08:30:29 djm Exp $
3 .\" Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
4 .\" Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
5 .\" All rights reserved
7 .\" As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software
8 .\" can be used freely for any purpose. Any derived versions of this
9 .\" software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is
10 .\" incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be
11 .\" called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell".
14 .\" Copyright (c) 1999,2000 Markus Friedl. All rights reserved.
15 .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron Campbell. All rights reserved.
16 .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Theo de Raadt. All rights reserved.
18 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
19 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
21 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
22 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
23 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
24 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
25 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
27 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
28 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
29 .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
30 .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
31 .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
32 .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
33 .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
34 .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
35 .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
36 .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
38 .Dd $Mdocdate: June 17 2024 $
43 .Nd adds private key identities to the OpenSSH authentication agent
47 .Op Fl E Ar fingerprint_hash
48 .Op Fl H Ar hostkey_file
49 .Op Fl h Ar destination_constraint
56 .Op Ar certificate ...
64 adds private key identities to the authentication agent,
66 When run without arguments, it adds the files
69 .Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk ,
72 .Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk .
73 After loading a private key,
75 will try to load corresponding certificate information from the
76 filename obtained by appending
78 to the name of the private key file.
79 Alternative file names can be given on the command line.
81 If any file requires a passphrase,
83 asks for the passphrase from the user.
84 The passphrase is read from the user's tty.
86 retries the last passphrase if multiple identity files are given.
88 The authentication agent must be running and the
90 environment variable must contain the name of its socket for
94 The options are as follows:
97 When loading keys into or deleting keys from the agent, process
98 certificates only and skip plain keys.
100 Indicates that added identities should be subject to confirmation before
101 being used for authentication.
102 Confirmation is performed by
104 Successful confirmation is signaled by a zero exit status from
106 rather than text entered into the requester.
108 Deletes all identities from the agent.
110 Instead of adding identities, removes identities from the agent.
113 has been run without arguments, the keys for the default identities and
114 their corresponding certificates will be removed.
115 Otherwise, the argument list will be interpreted as a list of paths to
116 public key files to specify keys and certificates to be removed from the agent.
117 If no public key is found at a given path,
122 If the argument list consists of
126 will read public keys to be removed from standard input.
127 .It Fl E Ar fingerprint_hash
128 Specifies the hash algorithm used when displaying key fingerprints.
136 Remove keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library
138 .It Fl H Ar hostkey_file
139 Specifies a known hosts file to look up hostkeys when using
140 destination-constrained keys via the
143 This option may be specified multiple times to allow multiple files to be
145 If no files are specified,
150 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts ,
151 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts2 ,
152 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts ,
154 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 .
155 .It Fl h Ar destination_constraint
156 When adding keys, constrain them to be usable only through specific hosts or to
157 specific destinations.
159 Destination constraints of the form
160 .Sq [user@]dest-hostname
161 permit use of the key only from the origin host (the one running
163 to the listed destination host, with optional user name.
165 Constraints of the form
166 .Sq src-hostname>[user@]dst-hostname
167 allow a key available on a forwarded
169 to be used through a particular host (as specified by
171 to authenticate to a further host,
175 Multiple destination constraints may be added when loading keys.
176 When attempting authentication with a key that has destination constraints,
177 the whole connection path, including
179 forwarding, is tested against those constraints and each
180 hop must be permitted for the attempt to succeed.
181 For example, if key is forwarded to a remote host,
183 and is attempting authentication to another host,
185 then the operation will be successful only if
187 was permitted from the origin host and the subsequent
189 hop is also permitted by destination constraints.
191 Hosts are identified by their host keys, and are looked up from known hosts
194 Wildcards patterns may be used for hostnames and certificate host
196 By default, keys added by
198 are not destination constrained.
200 Destination constraints were added in OpenSSH release 8.9.
201 Support in both the remote SSH client and server is required when using
202 destination-constrained keys over a forwarded
206 It is also important to note that destination constraints can only be
209 when a key is used, or when it is forwarded by a
212 Specifically, it does not prevent an attacker with access to a remote
214 from forwarding it again and using it on a different host (but only to
215 a permitted destination).
217 Load resident keys from a FIDO authenticator.
219 When loading keys into or deleting keys from the agent, process plain private
220 keys only and skip certificates.
222 Lists public key parameters of all identities currently represented
225 Lists fingerprints of all identities currently represented by the agent.
227 Be quiet after a successful operation.
229 Specifies a path to a library that will be used when adding
230 FIDO authenticator-hosted keys, overriding the default of using the
231 internal USB HID support.
233 Add keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library
235 Certificate files may optionally be listed as command-line arguments.
236 If these are present, then they will be loaded into the agent using any
237 corresponding private keys loaded from the PKCS#11 token.
238 .It Fl T Ar pubkey ...
239 Tests whether the private keys that correspond to the specified
241 files are usable by performing sign and verify operations on each.
243 Set a maximum lifetime when adding identities to an agent.
244 The lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format
251 to print debugging messages about its progress.
252 This is helpful in debugging problems.
255 options increase the verbosity.
260 Lock the agent with a password.
264 .It Ev "DISPLAY", "SSH_ASKPASS" and "SSH_ASKPASS_REQUIRE"
267 needs a passphrase, it will read the passphrase from the current
268 terminal if it was run from a terminal.
271 does not have a terminal associated with it but
275 are set, it will execute the program specified by
279 and open an X11 window to read the passphrase.
280 This is particularly useful when calling
286 .Ev SSH_ASKPASS_REQUIRE
287 allows further control over the use of an askpass program.
288 If this variable is set to
292 will never attempt to use one.
297 will prefer to use the askpass program instead of the TTY when requesting
299 Finally, if the variable is set to
301 then the askpass program will be used for all passphrase input regardless
306 Identifies the path of a
308 socket used to communicate with the agent.
309 .It Ev SSH_SK_PROVIDER
310 Specifies a path to a library that will be used when loading any
311 FIDO authenticator-hosted keys, overriding the default of using
312 the built-in USB HID support.
315 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
316 .It Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
317 .It Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk
318 .It Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
319 .It Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk
321 Contains the ECDSA, authenticator-hosted ECDSA, Ed25519,
322 authenticator-hosted Ed25519 or RSA authentication identity of the user.
325 Identity files should not be readable by anyone but the user.
328 ignores identity files if they are accessible by others.
330 Exit status is 0 on success, 1 if the specified command fails,
333 is unable to contact the authentication agent.
341 OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
342 ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
343 Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
344 Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
345 removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
347 Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
348 protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.