SSH Agent

Bitwarden Password Manager desktop app can act as an SSH Agent to securely encrypt and store your SSH (Secure Shell) keys for use with:

  • Authenticating to servers
  • Signing Git commits
  • Interacting with SSH-based services

See About SSH for additional information on how the agent works, supported key types, known limitations, and vault behavior.

Enable SSH Agent

To enable the SSH Agent on your Bitwarden desktop app, navigate to Settings and Enable SSH agent. Then, adjust the Ask for authorization when using SSH agent setting. This setting will determine when Bitwarden will require you to authorize access to an SSH key:

Enable SSH storage on desktop client Enable SSH storage on desktop client

Behavior by vault state

The SSH agent behaves differently depending on the current state of your vault. The following describes single-account behavior with the agent enabled.

Vault state Agent running List requests Sign requests
Logged out No
Locked (before initial unlock) Yes Supported Prompts to unlock vault.
Locked (after initial unlock) Yes Supported Prompts to unlock vault, then prompts to authorize.
Unlocked Yes Supported Supported

Configure your system to use Bitwarden SSH agent

In order to use Bitwarden as your primary SSH Agent, you will be required to configure your SSH client to communicate with Bitwarden for authentication. Once you have enabled the agent in the desktop app, configure your operating system to route SSH requests to Bitwarden:

Windows

To enable the Bitwarden SSH Agent on Windows, you must disable the OpenSSH service on your Windows machine:

  1. Navigate to Services → OpenSSH Authentication Agent.

Windows Services panel Windows Services panel 2. In the OpenSSH Authentication Agent Properties window, set the Startup type setting to Disabled. 3. Once the settings have been adjusted, select Apply and then OK.

macOS App store

Enable the Bitwarden SSH Agent on macOS store download:

  1. Configure the SSH_AUTH_SOCK variable to point to the Bitwarden SSH Agent socket. In the following example, replace <user> with your username:

```plain text export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/Users//Library/Containers/com.bitwarden.desktop/Data/.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock

2. To make this persistent, add the `export` command to your `~/.zshrc` or `~/.bashrc` file.

### macOS .dmg

Enable the Bitwarden SSH Agent on macOS .dmg download:

1. Configure the `SSH_AUTH_SOCK` variable to point to the Bitwarden SSH Agent socket. In the following example, replace `<user>` with your username:

```bash
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/Users/<user>/.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock
  1. Alternatively, configure SSH_AUTH_SOCKET:

```plain text launchctl setenv "SSH_AUTH_SOCKET" "/Users//.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock"

3. To make this persistent, add the `export` command to your `~/.zshrc` or `~/.bashrc` file.

> [!NOTE] launchctl require terminal restart
> You may need to restart the terminal after using the `launchctl` command.

### Linux

Enable the Bitwarden SSH Agent on Linux:

1. Configure the `SSH_AUTH_SOCK` variable to point to the Bitwarden SSH Agent socket. In the following example, replace `<user>` with your username:

```plain text
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/home/<user>/.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock
  1. To make this persistent, add the export command to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc file.

Snap and Flatpak

Enable the Bitwarden SSH Agent on snap or Flatpak installations:

  1. Configure the SSH_AUTH_SOCK variable to point to the Bitwarden SSH Agent socket. The following example demonstrates how to do this after replacing <user> with your username:

```plain text

Snap

export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/home//snap/bitwarden/current/.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock

Flatpak

export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/home//.var/app/com.bitwarden.desktop/data/.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock


## Test SSH agent

Once the SSH Agent has been configured for Bitwarden, you may test the setup by requesting an SSH list:

```plain text
ssh-add -L

Scenarios and workflows

Once the agent has been enabled and your OS has been configured, you can use Bitwarden SSH keys in a range of tools and workflows. The following scenarios will provide step-by-step setup for a range of common setups and use cases.

Use SSH to authenticate with Git

SSH can be used to authenticate with Git. The Bitwarden SSH Agent can add security and ease of use to your Git workflows. In this example, the Bitwarden SSH Agent will authenticate to GitHub.

  1. On your GitHub account, setup an SSH key by navigating to Settings,SSH and GPG keys, then select New SSH Key.
  2. On the add new SSH key screen, add a Name, select a Key type. Choose Authentication Key. Copy & paste thePublic key from your Bitwarden vault into the Key field on GitHub.

Create new GitHub key Create new GitHub key 3. Once you have completed all of the fields, select Add SSH keyto save the key. GitHub will request that you verify your GitHub account before the key is saved. 4. Test the GitHub SSH key in your terminal, for example if you are using macOS:

```plain text ssh -T git@github.com

5. If successful, Bitwarden will prompt you to verify the access request. Select **Authorize** to confirm. If successful, you will receive a message verifying the authentication attempt:

```plain text
Hi <USER>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Authenticate with Git repositories

Use the Bitwarden SSH Agent to sign SSH Git commits. Before using the Bitwarden SSH Agent to sign Git commits, your system will require:

  • Git version 2.34 or newer. Check your Git version with:

```plain text git --version

- OpenSSH version 8.8 or newer. Check version with:

```plain text
ssh -V
  • Bitwarden desktop client with SSH Agent enabled.

Configure Git for SSH signing

Configure your Git environment to point to your SSH key for signing. To complete this you may set global variables or establish the instructions in your .gitconfig file.

Set global variables

To configure Git settings using --global variables:

  1. Set Git to use SSH for signing:

```plain text git config --global gpg.format ssh

2. Specify the SSH key to use as the signing key. To use the Bitwarden SSH Agent, replace `<YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY> ` with the public key copied from the SSH key saved in your Bitwarden vault.

```plain text
git config --global user.signingkey "<YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY>"
  1. Enable automatic commit signing.

```plain text git config --global commit.gpgsign true


#### Set `.gitconfig` file

To configure Git using a `.gitconfig` file:

1. Access `.gitconfig` with your preferred text editor:

```plain text
nano ~/.gitconfig
  1. Add the following configurations:
[gpg]
 format = ssh
[user]
 signingkey = "<YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY>"
 name = <USER_NAME>
 email = <USER_EMAIL>
[commit]
 gpgsign = true

[!NOTE] windows git signing For Windows users:

  1. Add the core.sshCommand variable to your Git config to use Microsoft OpenSSH:

plain text git config --global core.sshCommand "C:/Windows/System32/OpenSSH/ssh.exe"

Alternatively, set variable in your .gitconfig file:

plain text [core] sshCommand = C:/Windows/System32/OpenSSH/ssh.exe 2. Next, you may be required to set the gpg.ssh.program parameter:

plain text git config --global gpg.ssh.program "C:/Windows/System32/OpenSSH/ssh-keygen.exe"

Sign Git commits

Using SSH to authenticate with Git can add security and ease of use to your workflow. Similarly, SSH keys stored in Bitwarden can be used to sign and verify Git commits using SSH protocol. In this example, the Bitwarden SSH Agent will be used to sign Git commits to GitHub.

  1. On your GitHub account, setup an SSH signing key by navigating to Settings,SSH and GPG keys, then select New SSH Key.
  2. On the add new SSH key screen, add a Name and select a Key type. Choose Signing Key. Copy & paste thePublic key from your Bitwarden vault into the Key field on GitHub.
  3. Configure git to use the allowedSignersFile with the following command:

```plain text git config --global gpg.ssh.allowedSignersFile "$HOME/.ssh/allowed_signers"

4. Add your public key to the allowedSignersFile:

```bash
# Create allowed_signers file
touch ~/.ssh/allowed_signers

# Edit the allowed_signers file and add a line for your public key pair you wish to trust, for example:
 User1@Bitwarden.com ssh-ed25519 <Your_Public_Key>
  1. Use the SSH key to clone your repository with SSH method:

SSH clone SSH clone

```plain text git clone git@github.com:/.git

6. Create the Git commit using terminal or your preferred text editor:

```plain text
git commit -m "This commit is signed using SSH"
  1. Bitwarden will prompt you to authorize the key usage based on user settings:

Authorize SSH with client Authorize SSH with client 8. Once authorized, the SSH key will be initiated to approve the commit. You may now push the commit:

```plain text git push

9. You may verify your commit on Github by navigating to GitHub commits:

![Verify your commit in GitHub](/uploads/projects/bitwarden-password-guide/202610/18e228511d80bacc.png)
*Verify your commit in GitHub*

### SSH agent forwarding

SSH agent forwarding allows a remote server you are accessing to authenticate to other servers using your keys, without exposing your private keys outside of your vault. The server you are logged in to can request your local Bitwarden instance to authenticate to the remote server. In this example, we will demonstrate transferring files between servers:

1. Create a new SSH key or import an existing SSH key to your Bitwarden desktop app.
2. Activate agent forwarding by opening a connection with the server you wish to send files to:

```plain text
ssh -A <HostnameA>
  1. Send a file to the server:

plain text rsync -avzP ./TEST.txt <USER>@<HostnameB>:/home/<USER>/test.txt 4. Bitwarden will prompt you to approve the SSH key access. This will show that the SSH key has been requested and used to complete the file transfer.

Confirm SSH Agent Forwarding Confirm SSH Agent Forwarding

Troubleshooting

The following section includes common issues users may encounter when using the SSH agent.

Error connecting to agent: Connection refused

  • The agent is not running; confirm it has been properly enabled and check the app logs.

ssh <action>fails

  • Try to run the command with -vvv and capture the output to share in a bug report.