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gboudrea
March 20, 2022
Question

How to export SSH private key using CLI?

  • March 20, 2022
  • 13 replies
  • 5690 views

So I now store my SSH private keys in 1Password.
One problem I have with that is that some clients really need the private key files on disk to work (Sequel-Ace, to name one).
So I thought I could create a simple command-line script that would use op to export my SSH private key to a file, and then delete that file a few seconds later, allowing those "legacy" clients to connect using my private key.

But I just can't find how to use op to export my private key as an OpenSSH private key.
If I download the key from the 1Password 8 client, I get a text file that starts with -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
But if I use the CLI like this : op read op://Personal/id_ed25519/'private key', I instead get a key that starts with -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----

So, how can I export an OpenSSH private key using CLI?

Or is there another way to export my SSH keys to disk?

Thanks


1Password Version: CLI 2.0.0
Extension Version: N/A
OS Version: macOS 12.3

13 replies

June 14, 2022

Thanks @gboudrea and @andrepereira ,

I'll file a bug to ensure that there is a way to retrieve a formatted version of the private key.

June 14, 2022

Hey @Plivox - just to clarify - do you get that error message when running this command? ssh-add <(op read op://Personal/key/private_key)

Error loading key "...": invalid format

July 5, 2022

Thanks Plivox!
Will add this to the issue.

Best,
Horia