Install SSH Key

This action installs SSH key in ~/.ssh.

Useful for SCP, SFTP, and rsync over SSH in deployment script.

Works on all virtual environment -- Windows, macOS, Ubuntu and Ubuntu 16.04.

Usage

Add your SSH key to your product secrets by clicking Settings - Secrets - Add a new secret beforehand.

NOTE: OPENSSH format (key begins with -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----) may not work due to OpenSSH version on VM. Please use PEM format (begins with -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----) instead.

runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Install SSH key
  uses: shimataro/ssh-key-action@v1
  with:
    private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
    name: id_rsa # optional
    known-hosts: ${{ secrets.KNOWN_HOSTS }} # known_hosts; optional
    config: ${{ secrets.CONFIG }} # ssh_config; optional
- name: rsync over ssh
  run: rsync ./foo/ user@remote:bar/

See Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions for details.

Install multiple keys

If you want to install multiple keys, call this action multiple times. It is useful for port forwarding.

NOTE: When this action is called multiple times, the contents of known-hosts and config will be appended. private-key must be saved as different name, by using name option.

runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Install SSH key of bastion
  uses: shimataro/ssh-key-action@v1
  with:
    private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY_OF_BASTION }}
    name: id_rsa-bastion
    known-hosts: ${{ secrets.KNOWN_HOSTS_OF_BASTION }}
    config: |
      Host bastion
        HostName xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
        User user-of-bastion
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa-bastion
- name: Install SSH key of target
  uses: shimataro/ssh-key-action@v1
  with:
    private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY_OF_TARGET }}
    name: id_rsa-target
    known-hosts: ${{ secrets.KNOWN_HOSTS_OF_TARGET }} # will be appended!
    config: |                                         # will be appended!
      Host target
        HostName yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy
        User user-of-target
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa-target
        ProxyCommand ssh -W %h:%p bastion
- name: SCP via port-forwarding
  run: scp ./foo/ target:bar/

FAQ

SSH failed even though installed key.

Check belows:

Load key "/HOME/.ssh/id_rsa": invalid format:
- OPENSSH format (key begins with -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----) may not work.
- Use PEM format (begins with -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----).
Host key verification failed.:
- Set known-hosts option or use ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no.
- The former is HIGHLY recommended for security reason.
- I'm planning to make known-hosts required in v2.

Which one is the best way for transferring files, "SCP", "SCP via bastion", "SFTP", "SFTP via bastion", "rsync" or "rsync via bastion"?

I recommend rsync via bastion. It has some advantages over other methods:

You only need to use this action only once even if it is necessary to transfer to multiple targets.
- Other methods require to use it multiple times in order to connect to each targets.
- Of course, it is necessary to install bastion public key on targets, and host keys on bastion. But you don't have to update workflow files and secrets even if number of targets changed.
rsync:
- is faster than others.
- will NOT break files even if disconnected during sending.
- can remove files that don't exist in target.
SCP is deprecated by OpenSSH due to outdated and inflexible protocol.
Using bastion is more secure because:
- it is not necessarily to expose SSH port on target servers to public.
- it requires to shutdown only bastion when security incident ―e.g., private key leaked, GitHub jacked― occurs.

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

5.8 KiB Raw Blame History