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README.md |
README.md
stage | group | info | type |
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Manage | Access | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments | howto, reference |
GitLab and SSH keys
Git is a distributed version control system, which means you can work locally, then share or "push" your changes to a server. In this case, the server is GitLab.
GitLab uses the SSH protocol to securely communicate with Git. When you use SSH keys to authenticate to the GitLab remote server, you don't need to supply your username and password each time.
Prerequisites
To use SSH to communicate with GitLab, you need:
- The OpenSSH client, which comes pre-installed on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows 10.
- SSH version 6.5 or later. Earlier versions used an MD5 signature, which is not secure.
To view the version of SSH installed on your system, run ssh -V
.
GitLab does not support installation on Microsoft Windows, but you can set up SSH keys on the Windows client.
Supported SSH key types
To communicate with GitLab, you can use the following SSH key types:
- ED25519
- RSA
- DSA (Deprecated in GitLab 11.0.)
- ECDSA (As noted in Practical Cryptography With Go, the security issues related to DSA also apply to ECDSA.)
Administrators can restrict which keys are permitted and their minimum lengths.
ED25519 SSH keys
The book Practical Cryptography With Go suggests that ED25519 keys are more secure and performant than RSA keys.
OpenSSH 6.5 introduced ED25519 SSH keys in 2014 and they should be available on most operating systems.
RSA SSH keys
Available documentation suggests that ED25519 is more secure than RSA.
If you use an RSA key, the US National Institute of Science and Technology in
Publication 800-57 Part 3 (PDF)
recommends a key size of at least 2048 bits. The default key size depends on your version of ssh-keygen
.
Review the man
page for your installed ssh-keygen
command for details.
See if you have an existing SSH key pair
Before you create a key pair, see if a key pair already exists.
- On Linux or macOS, go to your home directory.
- Go to the
.ssh/
subdirectory. - See if a file with one of the following formats exists:
Algorithm Public key Private key ED25519 (preferred) id_ed25519.pub
id_ed25519
RSA (at least 2048-bit key size) id_rsa.pub
id_rsa
DSA (deprecated) id_dsa.pub
id_dsa
ECDSA id_ecdsa.pub
id_ecdsa
Generate an SSH key pair
If you do not have an existing SSH key pair, generate a new one.
-
Open a terminal.
-
Type
ssh-keygen -t
followed by the key type and an optional comment. This comment is included in the.pub
file that's created. You may want to use an email address for the comment.For example, for ED25519:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "<comment>"
For 2048-bit RSA:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "<comment>"
-
Press Enter. Output similar to the following is displayed:
Generating public/private ed25519 key pair. Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_ed25519):
-
Accept the suggested filename and directory, unless you are generating a deploy key or want to save in a specific directory where you store other keys.
You can also dedicate the SSH key pair to a specific host.
-
Specify a passphrase:
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Enter same passphrase again:
-
A confirmation is displayed, including information about where your files are stored.
A public and private key are generated. Add the public SSH key to your GitLab account and keep the private key secure.
Configure SSH to point to a different directory
If you did not save your SSH key pair in the default directory, configure your SSH client to point to the directory where the private key is stored.
-
Open a terminal and run this command:
eval $(ssh-agent -s) ssh-add <directory to private SSH key>
-
Save these settings in the
~/.ssh/config
file. For example:# GitLab.com Host gitlab.com PreferredAuthentications publickey IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab_com_rsa # Private GitLab instance Host gitlab.company.com PreferredAuthentications publickey IdentityFile ~/.ssh/example_com_rsa
For more information on these settings, see the
man ssh_config
page in the SSH configuration manual.
Public SSH keys must be unique to GitLab because they bind to your account. Your SSH key is the only identifier you have when you push code with SSH. It must uniquely map to a single user.
Update your SSH key passphrase
You can update the passphrase for your SSH key.
-
Open a terminal and run this command:
ssh-keygen -p -f /path/to/ssh_key
-
At the prompts, type the passphrase and press Enter.
Upgrade your RSA key pair to a more secure format
If your version of OpenSSH is between 6.5 and 7.8, you can save your private RSA SSH keys in a more secure OpenSSH format.
-
Open a terminal and run this command:
ssh-keygen -o -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Alternatively, you can generate a new RSA key with the more secure encryption format with the following command:
ssh-keygen -o -t rsa -b 4096 -C "<comment>"
Add an SSH key to your GitLab account
To use SSH with GitLab, copy your public key to your GitLab account.
-
Copy the contents of your public key file. You can do this manually or use a script. For example, to copy an ED25519 key to the clipboard:
macOS:
tr -d '\n' < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | pbcopy
Linux (requires the
xclip
package):xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
Git Bash on Windows:
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | clip
Replace
id_ed25519.pub
with your filename. For example, useid_rsa.pub
for RSA. -
Sign in to GitLab.
-
In the top right corner, select your avatar.
-
Select Settings.
-
From the left sidebar, select SSH Keys.
-
In the Key box, paste the contents of your public key. If you manually copied the key, make sure you copy the entire key, which starts with
ssh-ed25519
orssh-rsa
, and may end with a comment. -
In the Title text box, type a description, like Work Laptop or Home Workstation.
-
Optional. In the Expires at box, select an expiration date. (Introduced in GitLab 12.9.) The expiration date is informational only, and does not prevent you from using the key. However, administrators can view expiration dates and use them for guidance when deleting keys.
-
Select Add key.
Verify that you can connect
Verify that your SSH key was added correctly.
-
For GitLab.com, to ensure you're connecting to the correct server, confirm the SSH host keys fingerprints.
-
Open a terminal and run this command, replacing
gitlab.example.com
with your GitLab instance URL:ssh -T git@gitlab.example.com
-
If this is the first time you connect, you should verify the authenticity of the GitLab host. If you see a message like:
The authenticity of host 'gitlab.example.com (35.231.145.151)' can't be established. ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:HbW3g8zUjNSksFbqTiUWPWg2Bq1x8xdGUrliXFzSnUw. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes Warning: Permanently added 'gitlab.example.com' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
Type
yes
and press Enter. -
Run the
ssh -T git@gitlab.example.com
command again. You should receive a Welcome to GitLab,@username
! message.
If the welcome message doesn't appear, you can troubleshoot by running ssh
in verbose mode:
ssh -Tvvv git@gitlab.example.com
Use different keys for different repositories
You can use a different key for each repository.
Open a terminal and run this command:
git config core.sshCommand "ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i ~/.ssh/private-key-filename-for-this-repository -F /dev/null"
This command does not use the SSH Agent and requires Git 2.10 or later. For more information
on ssh
command options, see the man
pages for both ssh
and ssh_config
.
Use different accounts on a single GitLab instance
You can use multiple accounts to connect to a single instance of GitLab.
You can do this by using the command in the previous topic.
However, even if you set IdentitiesOnly
to yes
, you cannot sign in if an IdentityFile
exists
outside of a Host
block.
Instead, you can assign aliases to hosts in the ~.ssh/config
file.
- For the
Host
, use an alias likeuser_1.gitlab.com
anduser_2.gitlab.com
. Advanced configurations are more difficult to maintain, and these strings are easier to understand when you use tools likegit remote
. - For the
IdentityFile
, use the path the private key.
# User1 Account Identity
Host <user_1.gitlab.com>
Hostname gitlab.com
PreferredAuthentications publickey
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<example_ssh_key1>
# User2 Account Identity
Host <user_2.gitlab.com>
Hostname gitlab.com
PreferredAuthentications publickey
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<example_ssh_key2>
Now, to clone a repository for user_1
, use user_1.gitlab.com
in the git clone
command:
git clone git@<user_1.gitlab.com>:gitlab-org/gitlab.git
To update a previously-cloned repository that is aliased as origin
:
git remote set-url origin git@<user_1.gitlab.com>:gitlab-org/gitlab.git
NOTE: Private and public keys contain sensitive data. Ensure the permissions on the files make them readable to you but not accessible to others.
Configure two-factor authentication (2FA)
You can set up two-factor authentication (2FA) for Git over SSH.
Use EGit on Eclipse
If you are using EGit, you can add your SSH key to Eclipse.
Use SSH on Microsoft Windows
If you're running Windows 10, you can use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with WSL 2. You can use WSL to install Linux distributions, which include the Git and SSH clients.
For other versions of Windows, you can install the Git and SSH clients by using Git for Windows.
Alternative tools include:
Overriding SSH settings on the GitLab server
GitLab integrates with the system-installed SSH daemon and designates a user
(typically named git
) through which all access requests are handled. Users
who connect to the GitLab server over SSH are identified by their SSH key instead
of their username.
SSH client operations performed on the GitLab server are executed as this user. You can modify this SSH configuration. For example, you can specify a private SSH key for this user to use for authentication requests. However, this practice is not supported and is strongly discouraged as it presents significant security risks.
GitLab checks for this condition, and directs you to this section if your server is configured this way. For example:
$ gitlab-rake gitlab:check
Git user has default SSH configuration? ... no
Try fixing it:
mkdir ~/gitlab-check-backup-1504540051
sudo mv /var/lib/git/.ssh/id_rsa ~/gitlab-check-backup-1504540051
sudo mv /var/lib/git/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ~/gitlab-check-backup-1504540051
For more information see:
[Overriding SSH settings on the GitLab server](#overriding-ssh-settings-on-the-gitlab-server)
Please fix the error above and rerun the checks.
Remove the custom configuration as soon as you can. These customizations are explicitly not supported and may stop working at any time.
Troubleshooting SSH connections
When you run git clone
, you may be prompted for a password, like git@gitlab.example.com's password:
.
This indicates that something is wrong with your SSH setup.
- Ensure that you generated your SSH key pair correctly and added the public SSH key to your GitLab profile.
- Try to manually register your private SSH key by using
ssh-agent
. - Try to debug the connection by running
ssh -Tv git@example.com
. Replaceexample.com
with your GitLab URL.