Create SSH keys for Apache user on CentOS

Question

I need to generate SSH keys for the Apache user 'nobody'.

I am trying to make a PHP script execute some Git commands to pull a repo from BitBucket ( http://brandonsummers.name/blog/2012/02/10/using-bitbucket-for-automated-deployments/ )

However I am having trouble as the PHP script runs through apache, and the user seems to be 'nobody'. Hence it fails connecting via SSH. While if I run the script via command line, Apache user seems to be 'root' and works fine.

The php script needs to execute Git and access BitBucket using SSH, however the SSH key I have on the server is for the user 'root'.

How can I create public and private SSH keys for a non-interactive user: nobody?

root@server [~]# lsof -i | grep :http
httpd     16942        nobody    5u  IPv4 23590964      0t0  TCP *:http (LISTEN)
httpd     16942        nobody    6u  IPv4 23590970      0t0  TCP *:https (LISTEN)
httpd     16944        nobody    5u  IPv4 23590964      0t0  TCP *:http (LISTEN)
..... and more

Can you tell your ssh client to use a key? if you are just running ssh you can pass it the -i argument to specify an identity. Then you could generate the keys and put them someplace the user has access to. — Russ Huguley
– Russ Huguley, Commented Feb 6, 2014 at 17:56
Maybe create a /home/nobody/.ssh directory with an id_rsa file in it? idk. — neubert
– neubert, Commented Feb 12, 2014 at 14:42

Martin · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-12 16:19:14Z

3

mkdir /nobody/.ssh
chown nobody -R //nobody/.ssh
chmod 777 /nobody/.ssh
ssh-add /nobody/.ssh/id_rsa

sudo -u nobody ssh-keygen
(when prompted specify save path in /nobody/.ssh)

The problem would only by if the key passphrase needs to be stored in keychain, otherwise it works.

answered Feb 12, 2014 at 16:19

Martin

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