I’ll admit: I’m terrible at managing SSH keys. Every time I build a new desktop I end up generating a new SSH key with ssh-keygen and then half-heartedly copy it to authorized_keys on machines that I ssh into. The machines that I use most often have huge authorized_keys files including keys from machines that died years ago, while systems that I rarely use don’t have any keys at all and I end up falling back to passwords until it annoys me enough to copy keys over.
This has been especially annoying over the past month or two as I’ve turned up a bunch of new systems at home, plus I added a new work Macbook Pro. I’d looked at various SSH key management systems, but they all looked like work to set up and maintain. For a single-user organization, I couldn’t see how they’d actually pay off.
Fortunately, right about this time I came across a Mastodon post from Ethan Schoonover,The guy behind the solarized color theme.
where he set up sudo authentication using 1Password for SSH key management and pam_rssh for sudo:
I liked his setup enough that I stole it wholesale, including getting it working (with fingerprints!) on my Linux desktop as well.
Here’s how I accomplished this, so hopefully you don’t need to jump through as many hoops as I did.

scottstuff.net

A comprehensive guide to setting up passwordless SSH and sudo authentication using 1Password for SSH key management. The tutorial covers configuring 1Password's SSH agent, setting up SSH client configuration with agent forwarding, implementing pam_rssh for sudo authentication, and adding biometric authentication on Linux using Yubikey Bio. The approach eliminates the need to manually manage SSH keys across multiple systems while providing secure authentication through fingerprints or system biometrics.

Passwordless SSH and sudo with 1Password on Mac and Linux

Getting biometric authentication working on Linux