Sublime Forum

Invalid SSH key passphrase specified

#1

Whenever I manually sync a folder that contains subfolders from local to remote (via: Sidebar > right click > Sync Local -> Remote) I get the following error:

  File "\\?\C:\Users\will\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text\Packages\SFTP\sftp\threads.py", line 22, in run_with_except_hook
  File "\\?\C:\Users\will\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text\Packages\SFTP\sftp\file_transfer.py", line 71, in run
  File "\\?\C:\Users\will\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text\Packages\SFTP\sftp\file_transfer.py", line 209, in clone
  File "\\?\C:\Users\will\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text\Packages\SFTP\sftp\sftp_transport.py", line 286, in connect
  File "\\?\C:\Users\will\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text\Packages\SFTP\sftp\sftp_transport.py", line 263, in connect
SFTP.sftp.errors.AuthenticationError: Invalid SSH key passphrase specified

The SSH passphrase is correct, though. Everything SFTP related works perfectly fine except for this error message. I’ve experienced this with both ST3 and ST4.

Anyone else having this issue?
Thanks, Stefan

0 Likes
#2

I’ve updated my post, since the error message was missing.

0 Likes
#3

The \\?\ path prefixes look suspicious to me.

It can be prepended to enable python to handle long paths (>260 chars) on Windows, but passing those path strings as command line arguments will most likely fail.

I wouldn’t expect those prefixes in tracebacks however.

0 Likes
#4

Thanks for bringing that up! The paths don’t even exist on my machine. I haven’t got a “will” user folder and also no “Sublime Text”, but “Sublime Text 3”, since I’ve upgraded from version 3 to 4 (but the error also occurs with version 3).

0 Likes
#5

I believe what you’re seeing there is the debug information embedded in the compiled package modules, so the path has Will’s folder structure from the point at which the code was compiled.

I don’t think that’s contributing to your problem; possibly this is related to the new version of SFTP shipping with new tools that perhaps don’t work the same as they used to?

0 Likes
#6

Thanks!

It’s not caused by the new SFTP version. I had seen the error before and temporarily dealt with it by commenting out the code that handles the error output inside SFTP.py.

The update to the new version overwrote my “fix” and brought the error to daylight again.

0 Likes
#7

How did you make the change? If you modify the sublime-package file directly, your change will get clobbered away whenever the package updates.

The OverrideAudit package (of which I am the author) makes it easier for you to make the change in a safer way and get warned on upgrades so that you can make sure that you get all bug fixes while keeping your modifications intact.

0 Likes
#8

Thank you for the suggestion.

I had completely disabled error message outputs by commenting out lines 312 to 322 of SFTP.py.

Since this is obviously a very bad long term solution, I didn’t mind it getting overwritten by a (rare) package update. But anyway, it’s good to know about your plugin.

Can you think of a way to just suppress this specific error message? As long as the syncing works (and it does), I wouldn’t care too much, if the root cause remained unknown.

0 Likes
#9

Off the top of my head (and it sounds disingenuous), but I would say either setting the correct passphrase key or, if it is correct and it’s still complaining and it’s not a config issue, raise an issue for the package because there may possibly be a defect there in the code that’s causing the issue.

0 Likes
#10

Thank you again!

I think, I can rule out an issue with my key files after trying different formats and because they actually work (everywhere including Sublime SFTP).

Best wishes!

0 Likes
#11

In case someone else is having the same problem:

Removing and reinstalling the Sublime SFTP package only resolves the issue until Sublime Text gets closed and reopened. To get rid of the error popup/message without turning off other error popups and messages, I did the following.

Find this line within SFTP.py (currently at line 300):

if message.find('/sftp/') != -1 or message.find('\\sftp\\') != -1:

Replace with:

if message.find('Invalid SSH key passphrase specified') == -1 and (message.find('/sftp/') != -1 or message.find('\\sftp\\') != -1):

0 Likes
#12

If you are on Windows, what key format are you using? SFTP on windows uses PuTTY’s psftp.exe, so your SSH key should be a .ppk. If you are trying to use an OpenSSH key, that may be the issue.

Provide some details and we can go from there.

0 Likes
#13

Thanks for getting involved!

The keys I use with Sublime are all .ppk. I convert them from OpenSSH using FileZilla. My keys mostly look like this (some are shorter):

PuTTY-User-Key-File-2: ssh-rsa
Encryption: aes256-cbc
Comment: imported-openssh-key
Public-Lines: 12
AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABgQC34oL8LvEN36E1YHqYsmAu3+icebU+CYSa
z/VrNWIqHgPW8Z4/Wr8vtXWORS7PJ+mNGUe7vAZMk+L9FZXbIvunLeMz5/0cBY6o
eK72NwZPeH7Cg/VBw9s6Qc69YmBV0Iy8wWkT4lpVS9Un60p5VmCoq2SdqCRT0uF5
/q0skSrsbu3mFh9XBbPQlGACXhdYbYjpe/QbaTJ1prbvinC91EQiAvxkveYyilEv
MSqKR7Wd/IMtN9KGHzV85GVZ7LavwvXTrEu1TUteZ4kWmsho1uwOXnBDz3m47prD
DzwGSfxV+rToFtKxc/D9f//JCWxFX0xFM7uCQNMR1BzqfNS6dOOi1uww9eoHd0Ak
0w8ErZxE87J1dhTLNuf7Ln/wgOe+ChYzhv2VfpR8fPL5c9wiBRvGkiZUnWFjItyd
QuXnpiXIe7g3CVMqXEcWfpZ5YKJxuM2kQ1X7DZiPm2npqZuj5mxg9ppwwVKoRf9B
X334Wq+xNJK4PAm0si9FEQNJD0ncqS16C9Etc94Vjm94pyzEQv1Qj1+8GtLGgbOO
eMnSzrPuzLQvLoY9lUyL30XPXqnPvYi93i9HsFP2sr8t0XMH/7vMBZDJTGe7EPun
mRhotwh1w/T692kRX/3qdr4DZkFWiME+JyJaMLV0thfKgVUsQQqGFin8h5I6XE2d
RKpnav4lcQ==
Private-Lines: 28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Private-MAC: dc95222d47f44fe53c975505ddcba550e8ff3156

My key files are mostly located on a virtual drive, added to sftp-config.json like this:

"ssh_key_file": "S:\\ssh\\some-file-name.ppk"

I’ve tried different passphrases, in case certain characters (e.g. spaces) weren’t allowed, but it didn’t make a difference.

All SFTP functionality works perfectly fine. It’s only about the mentioned error, every time I sync folders that contain multiple subfolders.

0 Likes