Permission denied (publickey) when deploying heroku code. fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

Question

I'm attempting to deploy my code to heroku with the following command line:

git push heroku master

but get the following error:

Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

I have already uploaded my public SSH key, but it still comes up with this error.

Answer 1

You have to upload your public key to Heroku:

heroku keys:add ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you don't have a public key, Heroku will prompt you to add one automatically which works seamlessly. Just use:

heroku keys:add

To clear all your previous keys do :

heroku keys:clear

To display all your existing keys do :

heroku keys

EDIT:

The above did not seem to work for me. I had messed around with the HOME environment variable and so SSH was searching for keys in the wrong directory.

To ensure that SSH checks for the key in the correct directory do :

ssh -vT [email protected]

Which will display the following ( Sample ) lines

OpenSSH_4.6p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8e 23 Feb 2007
debug1: Connecting to heroku.com [50.19.85.156] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/identity type -1
debug1: identity file /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version Twisted
debug1: no match: Twisted
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_4.6
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEXDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEXDH_REPLY
debug1: Host 'heroku.com' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/identity
debug1: Trying private key: /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.

Permission denied (publickey).

From the above you could observe that ssh looks for the keys in the /c/Wrong/Directory/.ssh directory which is not where we have the public keys that we just added to heroku ( using heroku keys:add ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ) ( Please note that in windows OS ~ refers to the HOME path which in win 7 / 8 is C:\Users\UserName )

To view your current home directory do : echo $HOME or echo %HOME% ( Windows )

To set your HOME directory correctly ( by correctly I mean the parent directory of .ssh directory, so that ssh could look for keys in the correct directory ) refer these links :

1. SO Answer on how to set Unix environment variable permanently

2. SO Question regarding ssh looking for keys in the wrong directory and a solution for the same.

Answer 2

I had the same issue, the steps below worked for me,

->heroku login

[email protected] & password

->cd C:\Users\yourusername\.ssh    (OR for cygwin shell ->cd ~/.ssh)

->ssh-keygen -t rsa -f id_rsa

if asks any passphrase don't use blank, fill with a passphrase,but not forget it.

After generating the key you need to add it, like so

$ ssh-add

and it to heroku

->heroku keys:add "id_rsa.pub"

change directory to workspace, than

->git clone [email protected]:stark-dawn-1234.git -o heroku

use passphrase that you set above.

---

Actually i also remove files below, but not sure that they are imp,

C:\Users\yourusername.heroku\credientals and C:\Users\yourusername.ssh\known_hosts

Answer 3

This problem was messing with me for a few days.

This might help.

1) Find out what keys you have in Heroku now.

$ heroku keys
=== 1 key for [email protected]
ssh-dss AAAAB8NzaC...DVj3R4Ww== [email protected]

2) Build a ~/.ssh/config file:

$ sudo vim ~/.ssh/config

Edit with this info

Host heroku.com
Hostname heroku.com 
Port 22 
IdentitiesOnly yes 
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/ssh-dss # location and name of your private key
TCPKeepAlive yes 
User [email protected]

Answer 4

Here is the link that explains how to manage your ssh keys: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/keys#adding-keys-to-heroku

Answer 5

I had the same problem cause i had no public keys, so i did:

heroku keys:clear
heroku keys:add

That will generate a public key and then it works well

Answer 6

If you are a windows user the other solutions here probably won't solve your problem.

I use Windows 7 64-Bit + Git-1.7.7.1-preview20111027 and the solution was to copy my keys from C:\users\user\.ssh to C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\.ssh. That's where this git client looks for the keys when pushing to heroku.

I hope this helps.

Answer 7

This was the solution for me:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/my_heroku_key_rsa

Answer 8

To share my experience :

Git (my own install) was looking for the key named 'id_rsa'.

So I tried to rename my keys to 'id_rsa' and 'id_rsa.pub' and it worked.

Btw, I'm sure there is an other way to do it but I didn't look deeper yet.

Answer 9

If you've already uploaded the key then try to remove the key and then re-upload it with a new key.

 heroku keys:remove //removes the existing key
 ssh-keygen -t rsa //generates a new key in ~/.ssh folder
 heroku keys:add    //uploads the new key, if no arguments r passed then the key generated                              
                    //in default directroy i.e., ~/.ssh/id_rsa is uploaded
 git push heroku

this should work.

Answer 10

I killed myself for 3 days trying every possible combination to try to get this to work -- I finally tried making a DSA key instead and it worked.

Try DSA instead of RSA if it's not working for you.

(I'm using Ubuntu 11.10, ruby 1.8.7, heroku 2.15.1)

Answer 11

On Windows 7,64 bit,the above solution (Onur Turhan's) worked for me with slight changes as below

C:\Users\MyName > heroku login

Enter email/password

C:\Users\MyName >ssh-keygen -t rsa -f id_rsa

This generated two files(id_rsa and id_rsa.pub) in my c:\Users\MyName directory (Not in .ssh directory)

heroku keys:add id_rsa.pub
git clone [email protected]:some-heiku-xxxx.git -o heroku

I guess adding the correct "id_rsa.pub" file is the most important.After generating the public key using keygen just verify that you are adding correct key by looking at the time-stamp when it was created.

Answer 12

One single command works:

heroku keys:add

It will make one if it doesn't exist.

Answer 13

I had this problem when TortoiseGIT was installed on my machine. After changing the environment variable GIT_SSH from

"c:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoisePlink.exe"

to

"c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\ssh.exe"

and following this tutorial with ssh-keygen and keys:add, it works!

Answer 14

Pushing was working for me and then stopped suddenly.

If the heroku api is experiencing downtime, you will get this error when you try to push.

Check:

https://status.heroku.com/

before freaking out too hard.

Answer 15

Sequence to follow

$ heroku login
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
$ heroku keys:add

When executing second statement it would ask for input, just press Enter(return) three times and a key will be added.

Answer 16

The above given answer DOES work, but found out I needed to do some extra steps before it worked.

1. I removed all id_rsa* files and generated a new SSH using this guide.
2. Then, I destroyed the heroku app. Removed the ~/.heroku/credentials file.
3. 'heroku create' command (and since the credentials file is removed, it will prompt you for your email/password.
4. FINALLY type 'heroku keys:add' and it will upload the default ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file.
5. It works! Well.... YMMV but I really do hope this can be some help as I struggled the whole day trying to figure this out! Haha

Answer 17

For all those who tried everything mentioned above on Windows 7 and still it didn't work, here is what I've done: - open GitBash.exe from the Git directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\ (don't open a command prompt, this won't work). - add the following as mentioned above, but you have to delete the #

Host heroku.com
Hostname heroku.com 
Port 22 
IdentitiesOnly yes 
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/ssh-dss
TCPKeepAlive yes 
User [email protected]

now run git push heroku master and it should work.

Answer 18

It sounds like your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file is not set up correctly. Verify that:

• It is in the correct path.
• The permissions of the file are 0600.
• The permissions of ~/.ssh are 0700.

Answer 19

I had to do:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa  
$ heroku keys:add  

Then it worked:

$ git push heroku master  

Answer 20

Check your .ssh config for heroku. Go to the .ssh folder and open the config file

cd ~/.ssh
subl config

The 'subl' is for Sublime Text, but you can use whatever editor you wish. Look for the line "IdentityFile" and make sure it has the non public key listed:

IdentityFile "/Users/ircmullaney/.ssh/my_ssh"

not

IdentityFile "/Users/ircmullaney/.ssh/my_ssh.pub"

That did it for me. I'm not sure why mine had the public version in the config file, but it did and it was throwing the error:

Permissions 0644 for '/Users/ircmullaney/.ssh/my_ssh.pub' are too open.

Answer 21

I was still having problems after trying all of these ideas. This was my problem:

My remote heroku repository was funked. I refreshed it as follows:

git remote -v

Then remove the heroku one that is wrong:

git remote rm heroku

Then add the new one

git remote add heroku [email protected]:sitename.git

You can get the sitename from your Heroku settings page for your app. Good Luck!

Answer 22

The problem I faced was on Windows and invariably whenever I run the "heroku keys:add" it selected the github keys. So here are the steps I followed to resolve the issue

1. went to the .ssh directory under "Document and Settings" folder and deleted the git hub keys
2. run the command heroku keys:add

The above command asked me to generate a new keys and following was the output Could not find an existing public key. Would you like to generate one? [Yn] Y Generating new SSH public key. Uploading SSH public key C:/Documents and Settings/Admin/.ssh/id_rsa.pub... done ! The 'heroku' gem has been deprecated and replaced with the Heroku Toolbelt, download and install from https://toolbelt.heroku.com.

1. rerun the command heroku keys:add

The above command will not give the following output Found existing public key: C:/Documents and Settings/Admin/.ssh/id_rsa.pub Uploading SSH public key C:/Documents and Settings/Admin/.ssh/id_rsa.pub... done

1. Now use the git push heroku master

for me using the above steps solved the issue and was able to deploy the application on the cloud.

Answer 23

I was experiencing the same problem; following these steps should help:

1. First, log in: heroku login
2. Clear all keys: heroku keys:clear
3. Delete all files in local folder ( all .pub files and know_host) in .ssh/ folder
4. Log in again : heroku login - u will prompt with no key, so follow the onscreen instructions.

Answer 24

I would just to like to add that the directory is not necessarily C:\Users\[username]\.ssh. It is the directory in which you created your public key in.

For instance my home directory in Windows was changed to C:\[username]. Your home directory in a .ssh sub-folder is the best and most likely place you may have created your keys. You can check your home directory in Windows with the command:

    echo %HOMEPATH%

Answer 25

If you want to use "sudo", example:

sudo git clone [email protected]......... -o heroku

you should also generate ssh key for your root user.

sudo su
cd /root/.ssh  
ssh-keygen -t rsa
....
heroku keys:add id_rsa.pub

and it'll work.

if you don't use root user, generate ssh key in your user directory instead.

cd /home/user/.ssh

Sorry if my sentences messed up...

Answer 26

Try repairing permissions in Disk Utility (Mac OS X). Helped me

Answer 27

At first make sure hidden files are visible in your Mac. If not do:

• Open terminal and type in defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
• killall Finder

Next steps:

• Going to Users/user_name/.ssh/ removed all the files.
• Opening terminal type in ssh-keygen -t dsa
• Then heroku keys:add ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

N.B. I did it in Mac OSX 10.7.2 Lion. Though the procedure should be same in others too.

Answer 28

I have this issue as well. I am using Mac OSX. The way I fixed that was to login as admin

sudo su

password

Answer 29

Solution of dmajkic help me at last:

For Windows users it may means: git client coudn’t find your keys. Check keys in c:\Users\UserName.ssh\ and! environment variable HOME=c:\Users\UserName\

Answer 30

Here is what worked for me. The heroku site is not being added to your known hosts. Go to window-other- show view-git-git repositories. From there clone the repository. Once you clone it, delete the repository that was just created and then import it from the file menu. Do this since when you clone the repository, it does not add it to the explorer view. Now you should have the git repository and the explorer view.