Setting SSH Key Permissions – Permission denied (publickey)

If you use ssh (Secure Shell) then you have likely encountered this error.

Permission denied (publickey)

If you haven’t generated a key, then you’ll want to use ssh-keygen to create a key for ssh sessions.

Linux

Usually, your key file will be located at ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub on UNIX based systems

chmod 600 path/to/key/keyfile

Windows

Usually, your key file will be located at %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub

Run this command to enable inheritance

icacls path/to/key/keyfile /inheritance:r
processed file: keyfile

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

Run this command to grant read access to your user on the file

icacls file /grant:r yourusername:"(R)"
processed file: keyfile

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files