Use password for SSH instead the Bitwarden SSH Agent

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1

Hi,

I’m using the Bitwarden SSH Agent, and it works great :rocket:

However, for some hosts, I want my password to be used instead of the Public/Private Key Pair. So I’ve tried the following:

ssh -o PubkeyAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=password -o PasswordAuthentication=yes myUser@myHost

Nonetheless, Bitwarden pops up and asks me to unlock my vault. Since I don’t want that, I close/minimize the Bitwarden window and wait 60 s or so until the SSL client asks me for the password of myUser. This is a somewhat acceptable workaround, but if possible, I’d like to avoid the round-trip and waiting time associated with Bitwarden.

Is there any way I can disable the Bitwarden SSH Agent for a particular ssh command? Or any other option how I can accomplish what I wish for? :thinking:

Thx!

2

You want the OpenSSH client option IdentitiesOnly yes

3

Thank you for your reply, but using ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes myUser@myHost still opens Bitwarden

4

You are right, I tested it before answering but my test was wrong.

The option is PubkeyAuthentication=no which you say you already tried :confused: .

I just tried it and with that option my OpenSSH client does not access the agent (be it bitwarden desktop client or any other one).

5

Yesterday evening, I ran ssh -o PubkeyAuthentication=no myUser@myHost on three different Win 11 devices, without luck :frowning: every time Bitwarden pops up.

In all cases, there is an already running (but locked and minimized to the system tray) Bitwarden instance - is this true for you as well?

6

Yes.

Bitwarden desktop client running and logged in, SSH_AUTH_SOCK set to ~/.bitwarden-ssh-agent.sock.

I ssh with -o PubkeyAuthentication=no to a host that I usually authenticate with my private key and the desktop client does not prompt me anything: when the account is unlocked it should ask me to authorize the key use, and when it’s locked it should ask me to unlock it.

The desktop client does not prompt me anything, it doesn’t even notice the ssh connection by the client.

But I’m using Linux, so I guess it must be a windows thing.