How to pass password to scp?

Question

I know it is not recommended, but is it at all possible to pass the user's password to scp?

I'd like to copy a file via scp as part of a batch job and the receiving server does, of course, need a password and, no, I cannot easily change that to key-based authentication.

Answer 1

Use sshpass:

sshpass -p "password" scp -r [email protected]:/some/remote/path /some/local/path

or so the password does not show in the bash history

sshpass -f "/path/to/passwordfile" scp -r [email protected]:/some/remote/path /some/local/path

The above copies contents of path from the remote host to your local.

Install :

• ubuntu/debian
  • apt install sshpass
• centos/fedora
  • yum install sshpass
• mac w/ macports
  • port install sshpass
• mac w/ brew
  • brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kadwanev/bigboybrew/master/Library/Formula/sshpass.rb

Answer 2

just generate a ssh key like:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]"

copy the content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and lastly add it to the remote machines ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

make sure remote machine have the permissions 0700 for ~./ssh folder and 0600 for ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Answer 3

If you are connecting to the server from Windows, the Putty version of scp ("pscp") lets you pass the password with the -pw parameter.

This is mentioned in the documentation here.