Article version: Enterprise Server 2.17
Troubleshooting SSH
When using SSH to connect and authenticate to GitHub Enterprise, you may need to troubleshoot unexpected issues that may arise.
Recovering your SSH key passphrase→
If you've lost your SSH key passphrase, depending on the operating system you use, you may either recover it or you may need to generate a new SSH key passphrase.
Error: Permission denied (publickey)→
A "Permission denied" error means that the server rejected your connection. There could be several reasons why, and the most common examples are explained below.
Error: Bad file number→
This error usually means you were unable to connect to the server. Often this is caused by firewalls and proxy servers.
Error: Key already in use→
This error occurs when you try to add a key that's already been added to another account or repository.
Error: Permission to user/repo denied to other-user→
This error means the key you are pushing with is attached to an account which does not have access to the repository.
Error: Permission to user/repo denied to user/other-repo→
This error means the key you are pushing with is attached to another repository as a deploy key, and does not have access to the repository you are trying to push to.
Error: Agent admitted failure to sign→
In rare circumstances, connecting to GitHub Enterprise via SSH on Linux produces the error "Agent admitted failure to sign using the key". Follow these steps to resolve the problem.
Error: ssh-add: illegal option -- K→
This error means your version of ssh-add does not support macOS keychain integration, which allows you to store your passphrase in the keychain.
Error: We're doing an SSH key audit→
This error means the SSH key you're using to perform a Git operation is unverified.