“Invalid privatekey” when using JSch

Question

I\'m using the following code to work with Git in a Java application. I have a valid key (use it all the time), and this specific code has work for me before with the same

Answer 1

Recent versions of OpenSSH (7.8 and newer) generate keys in new OpenSSH format by default, which start with:

-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

JSch does not support this key format.

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You can use ssh-keygen to convert the key to the classic OpenSSH format:

ssh-keygen -p -f file -m pem -P passphrase -N passphrase

(if the key is not encrypted with a passphrase, use "" instead of passphrase)

For Windows users: Note that ssh-keygen.exe is now built-in in Windows 10. And can be downloaded from Microsoft Win32-OpenSSH project for older versions of Windows.

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On Windows, you can also use PuTTYgen (from PuTTY package):

• Start PuTTYgen
• Load the key
• Go to Conversions > Export OpenSSH key.
  For RSA keys, it will use the classic format.

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If you are creating a new key with ssh-keygen, just add -m PEM to generate the new key in the classic format:

ssh-keygen -m PEM