sshpass

sshpass is a small wrapper that feeds a password to ssh and other SSH-based commands when a remote system still requires keyboard-interactive authentication. It is mainly a compatibility tool for legacy hosts where key-based auth is unavailable or cannot be enabled.

• Run ssh, scp, rsync, or other SSH-based commands non-interactively against password-only systems.
• Pass credentials from stdin, a file, an inherited file descriptor, or the SSHPASS environment variable instead of typing at a prompt.
• Handle common failure cases such as wrong passwords or unknown host keys through exit codes inside scripts.

• It fits shell automation cleanly because it wraps existing SSH commands and exits non-interactively once arguments are set.
• Machine-readable output is minimal: there is no JSON mode, so most follow-up logic has to use exit codes plus stderr from ssh or the wrapped command.
• Best used as a narrow legacy-access helper inside a larger workflow, not as a general remote-management CLI.

• Password automation is weaker than SSH key-based auth; the man page explicitly recommends public key authentication when possible.
• The -p flag is the least secure option because other users can inspect process arguments, so stdin, file descriptor, file, or environment-based handoff is safer.