Cannot parse privateKey: Unsupported key format

[dogui1718]

I am getting this error when I try to connect with server using a ssh key.

(node:13393) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Error: Cannot parse privateKey: Unsupported key format
   at Client.connect (/node_modules/ssh2/lib/client.js:146:13)
   at Client.sftp (/node_modules/scp2/lib/client.js:99:7)
   at Client.download (/node_modules/scp2/lib/client.js:289:8)
   at cp2local (/node_modules/scp2/lib/scp.js:84:10)
   at Client.exports.scp (/node_modules/scp2/lib/scp.js:102:5)
   at createUserCertificate (/app/controllers/user-migration.js:203:10)
   at <anonymous>
   at process._tickDomainCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:228:7)

I am using this key format

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

This is my code

client.scp({
    host: '*******************',
    username: '******************',
    privateKey:  '~/.ssh/user',
    path: `***************************`
  }, `*******************************`,
  function(err){
    if (err){
      console.log(err);
    }
  });

Looking for more info about this error, I guess you must to add a new property for ask which ssh key formar are using. Take a look at this documentation:

https://github.com/mscdex/ssh2-streams#utility-methods

[geovanneb]

This is not a bug. You should use:

client.scp({
host: '*',
username: '',
privateKey: fs.readFileSync('~/.ssh/user'),
path: ***************************
}, *******************************,
function(err){
if (err){
console.log(err);
}
});

[SergeyMell]

Thank you @geovanneb, your solution worked for mу. However, instead of ~/.ssh/id_rsa I had to write path like /Users/sergey/.ssh/id_rsa. For some reason fs did not recognize ~ correctly

[AkshayK47]

I tried using exact path @geovanneb, here is my code

test.scp("***************************", { host: "localhost", username: "********", port: "2223", privateKey: fs.readFileSync('/home/***********/xyz.key'), path: ".", }, (err) => { console.log(err); });

[midnightcodr]

@SergeyMell, the problem you encountered is not specific to this library, but rather node.js. You can test with this simple code:

const fs = require('fs')
console.log(fs.readFileSync('~/test-file.txt').toString()) // this would throw error

You can use the solution in this SO entry to work around that problem.

[Robin-Sch]

	scpclient.scp({
		host,
		port,
		username,
		privateKey: require('fs').readFileSync(SSH_KEY_PATH),
		passphrase,
		path,
	}, dest);

same error, console.log(require('fs').readFileSync(SSH_KEY_PATH)) gives a Buffer