Github permission denied: ssh add agent has no identities

This is my first time accessing GitHub and I'm not experienced using a console. I am on a MacBook using Bash. When I try to access GitHub, I get this:

git clone [email protected]:dhulihan/league-of-legends-data-scraper.git
Cloning into 'league-of-legends-data-scraper'...
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

I've tried following the instructions on Github page about permission being denied.

When I use ssh -vT [email protected], I get the following:

OpenSSH_6.2p2, OSSLShim 0.9.8r 8 Dec 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh_config line 20: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.252.129] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/XXXX/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/XXXX/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/XXXX/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/XXXX/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.2
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version libssh-0.6.0
debug1: no match: libssh-0.6.0
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-sha1 none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEXDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEXDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: RSA 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48
debug1: Host 'github.com' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/XXXX/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /Users/XXXX/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /Users/XXXX/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

Next, eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" returns "Agent pid 2314", however ssh-add -l returns "The agent has no identities."

And that is where I am stuck.

Solution 1:

Full details in this answer.

In summary, when ssh-add -l returns “The agent has no identities”, it means that keys used by ssh (stored in files such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, ~/.ssh/id_dsa, etc.) are either missing, they are not known to ssh-agent, which is the authentication agent, or that their permissions are set incorrectly (for example, world writable).

If your keys are missing or if you have not generated any, use ssh-keygen -t rsa, then ssh-add to add them.

If keys exist but are not known to ssh-agent (like if they are in a non-standard folder), use ssh-add /path/to/my-non-standard-ssh-folder/id_rsa to add them.

See this answer if you are having trouble with ssh-add or ssh-agent.

Solution 2:

try this:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

worked for me

Solution 3:

THE 2019 ANSWER for macOS Sierra & High Sierra & Catalina:

PS: most of the other answers will have you to create a new ssh key ... but you don't need to do that :)

As described in detail on https://openradar.appspot.com/27348363, macOS/OS X till Yosemite used to remember SSH keys added by command ssh-add -K <key>

So here are the 4 steps i had to take in order for it to work:

1: ssh-add ~/.ssh/PATH_TO_YOUR_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa)

2: Add the following in ~/.ssh/config

Host * 
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes
  IdentityFile PATH_TO_YOUR_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa)

3: make sure to remove any gitconfig entry that use osxkeychain helper:

 https://github.com/gregory/dotfiles/commit/e38000527fb1a82b577f2dcf685aeefd3b78a609#diff-6cb0f77b38346e0fed47293bdc6430c6L48

4: restart your terminal for it to take effect.

Solution 4:

I have been stucked a while on the same problem, which I eventually resolved.

My problem: I could not execute any push. I could check & see my remote (using git remote -v), but when I executed git push origin master, it returned : Permission denied (publickey). fatal: Could not read from remote repository. and so.

How I solved it :

• I generated a key using ssh-keygen -t rsa. Entering a name for the key file (when asked) was useless.
• I could then add the key (to git): ssh-add /Users/federico/.ssh/id_rsa , which successfully returned Identity added: /Users/myname/.ssh/id_rsa (/Users/myname/.ssh/id_rsa)
• I added the SSH key to github using this help page.
• Having tried all the commands in Github's 'Permission denied publickey' help page, only the ssh-add -l command worked / seemed useful (after having ran the previous steps), it successfully returned my key. The last step shows you where to check your public key on your GitHub page. And this command will help you check all your keys : ls -al ~/.ssh.

Then the push command eventually worked !

I hope this will help ! Best luck to all.