ssh localhost needs password for Mac OS

Question

I'm installing jhispter and when trying to run ssh -p 4022 jhipster@localhost, system is asking for a password.

bash-3.2$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh -p 4022 jhipster@localhost 'mkdir ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
jhipster@localhost's password: 

How should i configure/skip this password. I have already seen some posts but they all seem to talk about in Linux.

Log:

bash-3.2$ ssh -v -p 4022 jhipster@localhost
OpenSSH_6.2p2, OSSLShim 0.9.8r 8 Dec 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh_config line 20: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to localhost [127.0.0.1] port 4022.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/abhishek/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: identity file /Users/abhishek/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/abhishek/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/abhishek/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.2
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu1 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr [email protected] none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr [email protected] none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: RSA 98:02:c9:8e:83:f6:fb:3a:20:fd:15:1f:91:63:92:14
debug1: Host '[localhost]:4022' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/abhishek/.ssh/known_hosts:4
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /Users/abhishek/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Trying private key: /Users/abhishek/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Next authentication method: password
jhipster@localhost's password: 

Answer 1

Passwordless ssh is a chicken and egg problem. Until you manage to successfully enter your ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub content into jhipster's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys you will be prompted for a password when ssh-ing as jhipster. You'd need to enter it for the cmd to succeed (assuming it is correct).

The same applies for the ssh-copy-id cmd as well.

Since you're already encountering difficulties I'd suggest trying to keep things simple.

• The 1st goal is to become jhipster@localhost (otherwise you can't update the authorized_keys file)

One way to do that is to use ssh (you'll need to enter the password):

ssh -p 4022 jhipster@localhost 

If you don't/can't enter the password (say if it's not known or doesn't have one set) but you do have root/sudo access you can try:

sudo su - jhipster

or, respectively, as root:

su - jhipster

• Once logged in as jhipster you can update your file like this:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
cat ~abhishek/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Note: the last cmds account for the possibility of other userids already having their keys in jhipster's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys which probably need to be preserved.