When I am logged into my machine directly, I can do all git operations, and when prompted for a password, the password is accepted. When I ssh into the same box and run git operations on the same repos, the password is rejected. Relevant section of .ssh/config looks like this: # Generic settings Host * ServerAliveInterval 600 ControlPath /tmp/ssh-%r@%h:%p ControlMaster auto KeepAlive yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub Transaction looks like this when I login when I ssh into my box: {12-12-03 9:41}hbrown-wks2:~/workspace/spt/project@master??? hbrown% git pull Enter passphrase for key '/home/hbrown/.ssh/id_rsa.pub': Enter passphrase for key '/home/hbrown/.ssh/id_rsa.pub': Enter passphrase for key '/home/hbrown/.ssh/id_rsa.pub': Permission denied (publickey). fatal: Could not read from remote repository. Please make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists. Using bash does not appear to make a difference (i.e. ssh-agent /bin/bash). This is a recent development, but I can't cite the change that caused it.