use keys, not passwords
it’s subject old as world (password-protected world, that is). i had to do some of cleanup on my devices and i hit a problem with 4096 bit keys. so, just as a reference that may be helpful somewhere for someone - you import keys to Cisco IOS without any special problems: router#conf t Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. router(config)#ip ssh pubkey-chain router(conf-ssh-pubkey)#username TEST router(conf-ssh-pubkey-user)#key-string router(conf-ssh-pubkey-data)#AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAACAQDCiLBaopUwsFb9YJNhGqVYqBajlrH S/zwD6/yR6N8VcRzrpqMMNCFXe1q5GMGM[...]ANWInd9GHBjTzbJWVwavxy1ooQewii8ErofZuv1l/SXSdXLzfL p0zMoZ0L+BNPS0j4XBS0N3t8Vl8oVixqIeG2BNTCNaDDt6hx2Q== lukasz@bromirski....