Don't use a password. Generate a passphraseless SSH key and push it to your VM.
If you already have an SSH key, you can skip this step… Just hit Enter for the key and both passphrases:
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
Copy your keys to the target server:
$ ssh-copy-id id@server
id@server's password:
Now try logging into the machine, with ssh 'id@server', and check in:
.ssh/authorized_keys
to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.
Finally check logging in…
$ ssh id@server
id@server:~$
You may also want to look into using ssh-agent if you want to try keeping your
keys protected with a passphrase.