[TriLUG] ssh command line

[Kevin Hunter]

At 3:59pm -0400 on Thu, 21 Aug 2008, Roy Vestal wrote:
> We're working with a script that we need to pass via the cmd line from  
> one server to another (automation). We want to use ssh without using  
> shared keys. Is there a way to pass the password to the command line?

I'm really curious why you don't want to use keys?  I've yet to run
across a place where I haven't preferred keys.  Depending on the setup,
they're more secure, and, after a cached password (or no password if
you're trusting), they're mucho faster.  No password whatsoever and less
susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks.

But, you know the specifics.  I do not think ssh has a command line
option for this.  Historically, the way around programs that don't let
you specify input non-interactively is to use expect:

Sample script:

#!/usr/bin/expect

spawn ssh localhost             # start ssh
set password [lindex $argv 0]   # set a variable
expect "password: "             # look for this input
send "$password\r"              # send this output.  Note \r, not \n
expect eof                      # wait for ssh to complete

$ ./no_keys_ssh_script MyPasswordHere

Hope this helps,

Kevin