[Hidden-tech] Broken public keys

[R. David Murray]

On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 17:03:15 -0400, GLP <glp at gregperham.com> wrote:
> The keys I generate on my Mac are unusable. I always get, "incorrect passphrase supplied to decrypt private key." This happens whether or not I generate them with a passphrase. This is the process I use:
> 
> ssh-keygen -t rsa -N mypassphrase -f my_id
> Generating public/private rsa key pair.
> Your identification has been saved in my_id.
> Your public key has been saved in my_id.pub.
> The key fingerprint is: etc etc
> 
> Then to verify:
> 
> ssh-keygen -y -f my_id.pub
> Enter passphrase: mypassphrase
> Load key "my_id.pub": incorrect passphrase supplied to decrypt private key
> 
> 
> Anyone have any idea what's wrong?

Maybe the shell is interpreting some of the characters you are putting
in the passphrase?  Try not using -N and just typing the passphrase
at the prompt when creating the key.  That's better practice anyway.
If you really need to put it on the command line, surround it with
single quotes: -N 'mypassphrase'.

--David