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@d11wtq
Created January 29, 2014 23:32
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How to SSH agent forward into a docker container
docker run -rm -t -i -v $(dirname $SSH_AUTH_SOCK) -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK ubuntu /bin/bash
@benjertho
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This works for me for the first shell logon, but fails for successive attempts. My use case is a remote container that has a longer lifespan, usually of a couple weeks. Is there a solution that is robust against the changing of the SSH_AUTH_SOCK target?

docker run -dit \
	--network host \
	--gpus all \
	--restart unless-stopped \
	--privileged \
	-e "DISPLAY=$DISPLAY" \
	-e "QT_X11_NO_MITSHM=1" \
        -e "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent" \
        -e "SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/ssh-agent" \
	-v "$XSOCK:$XSOCK" \
	-v "$HOME/data:/root/data:rw" \
	-v "$HOME/.gitconfig:/root/.gitconfig" \
	--name $NAME $NAME:latest bash

@jameshopkins
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The official guidance works for me, when nothing else has. It's not very well explained, but the bind mount paths are magic values to allow SSH agent forwarding.

@GuillermoAndrade
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-e "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent" \

maybe -v here instead of -e ?

@timur265
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timur265 commented Apr 21, 2021

Hi everyone. I have the same problem. Has anyone found the solution?
This works for me for the first shell login, but fails for successive attempts

sudo docker run --restart always --network host --name github-runner -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/ssh-agent -e REPO_URL="$REPO_NAME" -e ACCESS_TOKEN="$ACCESS_TOKEN" myoung34/github-runner:latest

@conf
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conf commented May 24, 2021

If you're on a mac, the current incantation should be:

docker run -it --rm -v /run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock:/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock" debian bash

@tomdavies
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For anyone struggling to get ssh-agent forwarding to work for non-root container users, here's the workaround I came up with, running my entry point script as root, but using socat + su-exec to expose the socket to the non-root user and then run commands as that user:

  1. Add socat and su-exec to the container in your Dockerfile (you might not need the later if you're not using alpine)
USER root
RUN apk add socat su-exec
# for my use case I need www-data to have access to SSH, so 
RUN \
    mkdir -p /home/www-data/.ssh && \
    chown www-data:www-data /home/www-data/.ssh/
  1. In your entrypoint:
#!/bin/sh
# Map docker's "magic" socket to one owned by www-data
socat UNIX-LISTEN:/home/www-data/.ssh/socket,fork,user=www-data,group=www-data,mode=777 \
    UNIX-CONNECT:/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock \
    &
# set SSH_AUTH_SOCK to the new value
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/home/www-data/.ssh/socket
# exec commands as www-data via su-exec
su-exec www-data ssh-add -l
# SSH agent works for the www-data user, in reality you probably have something like su-exec www-data "$@" here
  1. Run your container as @conf states:
docker run -it --rm -v /run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock:/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock" name cmd

@unphased
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shrug this: -v "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK:$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK worked for me. The original gist did not.

@josepsmartinez
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@unphased Probably due to the symlink situation, as @arunthampi noticed here.

The line the worked for me was docker run -i -t -v $(readlink -f $SSH_AUTH_SOCK):/ssh-agent -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/ssh-agent ubuntu /bin/bash

@Paprikas
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Paprikas commented Jun 7, 2022

@unphased
volume $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent
and ENV SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/ssh-agent worked for me for years.
But after I've upgraded packages to the latest (ubuntu 22), the agent just stopped working! I mean - ssh-add -l was saying that it does not have access to the agent.
Thank you, your snippet works! Spent the whole day on this issue ))

@wirwolf
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wirwolf commented Dec 22, 2023

Check if you use docker from snap. In my Kubuntu 22.04 I remove docker from snap and install using apt and problem is fixed

@vokshirg
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vokshirg commented Feb 6, 2024

the latest official documentation helped me with docker-compose setup
https://docs.docker.com/desktop/networking/#ssh-agent-forwarding

@sourcecodemage
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is there a version of setup for Redhat linux and distributions based on it like CentOS and Rocky?

@sourcecodemage
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the latest official documentation helped me with docker-compose setup https://docs.docker.com/desktop/networking/#ssh-agent-forwarding

That seems to be specific to Docker Desktop. What about Colima and/or Podman?

@philippkemmeter
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Based on @tomdavies post, i created this Dockerfile which uses the USER statement in order to have an unpriviledged container instead of su-exec:

FROM python:3.11.6-alpine

RUN apk --no-cache add --update \
    socat \
    sudo

RUN addgroup --gid 1001 -S ansible && adduser --uid 1001 -S ansible -G ansible -h /home/ansible
RUN echo 'ansible ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/local/bin/create-ansible-agent-socket.sh' > /etc/sudoers
RUN echo 'socat UNIX-LISTEN:/home/ansible/.ssh/agent,fork,user=ansible,group=ansible,mode=777 UNIX-CONNECT:/root/.ssh/agent' > /usr/local/bin/create-ansible-agent-socket.sh
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/create-ansible-agent-socket.sh
RUN echo 'sudo /usr/local/bin/create-ansible-agent-socket.sh & SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/home/ansible/.ssh/agent "$@"' > /entrypoint.sh

USER ansible
RUN mkdir -p /home/ansible/.ssh && chown ansible:ansible /home/ansible/.ssh

ENTRYPOINT [/bin/sh, /entrypoint.sh]

you run it then with

docker run -it -u ansible \
    -v "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK":/root/.ssh/agent \
    -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/root/.ssh/agent \
    name cmd

@sadanand1120
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@benjertho After struggling for hours with the same problem (works on first shell login but after that fails), I tried a hack and it worked! Sharing here:

  • Add an entrypoint line to dockerfile
    ENTRYPOINT ["/ros_entrypoint.sh"]

  • In entrypoint script, add the following at the top:

# Dynamically set SSH_AUTH_SOCK if it's available in the mounted /tmp directory
if [ -n "$(find /tmp -type s -name 'agent.*' 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
  export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$(find /tmp -type s -name 'agent.*' 2>/dev/null)
fi
  • Add the following to your compose.yaml:
environment:
    - SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-agent
volumes:
    - /tmp:/tmp

Now the ssh auth sock will be set appropriately every time.

@nocanstillbb
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run docker -p  222:22 && apt install openssh-server &&  $(edit /etc/ssh/sshdconfig to enable root login)

on your mac of git bash

eval $(ssh-agent -s)
ssh-add 
ssh -A  toDockerContainer

@x85446
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x85446 commented Dec 5, 2024

Thanks! You pointed me in the right direction for a very similar problem. Here’s my take on it, implemented within a Makefile. This is very much specific to a mac os problem with a Docker Desktop solution.

# izumanetworks.com ai-edge-runner
run:
    @if [ -z "$(WORKSPACE_PATH)" ]; then \
        echo "Error: Please specify the path to map using MAP=/path/to/map"; \
        exit 1; \
    fi
    @if [ -z "$(SSH_AUTH_SOCK)" ]; then \
        echo "Error: SSH agent is not running. Please start it with 'eval $$(ssh-agent -s)' and add your key with 'ssh-add'."; \
        exit 1; \
    fi
    docker run -it \
        --name $(CONTAINER_NAME) \
        -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock \
        -v /run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock:/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock \
        -v $(WORKSPACE_PATH):/izuma \
        --entrypoint /bin/bash \
        $(IMAGE_NAME)

The magic is that even though macOS doesn’t have a /run/blah/blah path, Docker Desktop creates /run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock as a special bridge to your host system’s SSH_AUTH_SOCK.

To test, run ssh-add -l inside the container to list your keys and ssh -T git@github.com to verify connectivity. This approach works seamlessly with Docker Desktop on macOS.

@hannylicious
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the latest official documentation helped me with docker-compose setup https://docs.docker.com/desktop/networking/#ssh-agent-forwarding

That seems to be specific to Docker Desktop. What about Colima and/or Podman?

Did you ever figure this out on Podman specifically?

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