SSH Keychain Access

Use this skill for SSH access recovery where credentials are in macOS Keychain.

Security stance

• Prefer SSH keys loaded with ssh-add --apple-use-keychain.
• Use a Keychain-stored password only as an emergency fallback or to bootstrap key-based access.
• Never print passwords, private keys, API keys, WHM credentials, or licence credentials.
• Do not run security find-generic-password -w ... as a standalone command that would expose the password in tool output.
• Do not use sshpass -p, put passwords in command history, or disable host key checking.
• For root SSH, narrow the target to the specific host/IP and remove temporary access when recovery is complete.

Key-first workflow

1. Check loaded identities:

   ssh-add -l

2. Add the private key to the macOS keychain:

   chmod 600 /path/to/private_key
   ssh-add --apple-use-keychain /path/to/private_key

3. Test SSH with public-key auth:

   ssh -o PreferredAuthentications=publickey user@host

Store a password in Keychain

Run this only in the user's local terminal. It avoids placing the password in shell history:

SERVICE="example-server-ssh"
ACCOUNT="admin@example-host"
printf 'Password for %s: ' "$ACCOUNT"
OLD_STTY=$(stty -g)
trap 'stty "$OLD_STTY"; unset SSH_PASSWORD' INT TERM EXIT
stty -echo
IFS= read -r SSH_PASSWORD
stty "$OLD_STTY"
printf '\n'
security add-generic-password -U -a "$ACCOUNT" -s "$SERVICE" -w "$SSH_PASSWORD"
unset SSH_PASSWORD
trap - INT TERM EXIT

Verify the item exists without printing the password:

security find-generic-password -a "$ACCOUNT" -s "$SERVICE"

Use the helper

Use the bundled helper when password SSH is required and the password must come from Keychain without appearing in output:

shared/skills/ssh-keychain-access/scripts/ssh-keychain-login.sh \
  --host example-host \
  --user admin \
  --service example-server-ssh \
  --account admin@example-host

For an unknown host key, verify the expected server host key out of band first. Only then re-run with:

--accept-new-host-key

To run a one-off remote command, append it after --:

shared/skills/ssh-keychain-access/scripts/ssh-keychain-login.sh \
  --host example-host \
  --user admin \
  --service example-server-ssh \
  --account admin@example-host \
  -- 'hostname; whoami'

Bootstrap public-key access

If password access works, use it only long enough to install a public key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 100 -f ~/.ssh/codex-whm-recovery-$(date +%Y-%m-%d) -C "codex-whm-recovery-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
ssh-add --apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/codex-whm-recovery-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
cat ~/.ssh/codex-whm-recovery-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).pub

Then append only the public key to the server's authorized_keys, confirm public-key login works, and prefer key login for the rest of the session.