Setting ssh public keys on Docker image

Question

I setup a Docker image that supports ssh. No problem, lots of examples. However, most examples show setting a password using passwd. I want to distribute my image. Having a fixed password, especially to root, seems like a gaping security hole. Better, to me, is to setup the image with root having no password. When a user gets the image they would then copy their public ssh file to the image /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

Is there a recommended way to do this?

1. Provide a Dockerfile that builds on my image with an ADD command that user can edit?
2. Provide a shell script that runs something like "cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys | docker run -i sh -c 'cat > root/.ssh/authorized_keys"?

Longhand

Another option is to use "docker run -t -i -v /root/.ssh:/root/.ssh:ro yourimage" But this works for root user .ssh dir only, because userids on host/container have to match :( – Subvention

Answer 1

What about generating a private key and display it to the user?

I use this snippet as part of the entrypoint script for an image:

KEYGEN=/usr/bin/ssh-keygen
KEYFILE=/root/.ssh/id_rsa

if [ ! -f $KEYFILE ]; then
  $KEYGEN -q -t rsa -N "" -f $KEYFILE
  cat $KEYFILE.pub >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
fi

echo "== Use this private key to log in =="
cat $KEYFILE

Nuriel