At a very high level SSH keys are generated through a mathematical formula that takes 2 prime numbers and a random seed variable to output the public and private key. SSH keys are generated through a public key cryptographic algorithm, the most common being RSA or DSA. This data is then opened with the 'private' key which you hold in a secure place. You give the public 'lock' to remote parties to encrypt or 'lock' data. It is more helpful to think of the public key as a "lock" and the private key as the "key". The private vs public nomenclature can be confusing as they are both called keys. The key pair contains a public and private key. SSH uses a pair of keys to initiate a secure handshake between remote parties. The SSH acronym is also used to describe a set of tools used to interact with the SSH protocol. SSH is used for remote file transfer, network management, and remote operating system access. This authenticated and encrypted secure network protocol is used for remote communication between machines on an unsecured open network. If it happens that some values are commented out by a # in front of it, just remove it.An SSH key is an access credential for the SSH (secure shell) network protocol. Enter the name of the value and press enter. To avoid scrolling through the whole config to find the values that need to be changed you can open a search-field by pressing. To do so open the sshd_config with this command: Therefore, it’s logical to disable password authentication now. The reason behind choosing ssh-key authentication as your login method is server security. Besides that, the following message will appear during the login process: “Authenticating with public key ”. After double-clicking on the profile, a console will open prompting you to enter your username which is usually root.Īfter entering the username and confirming it by pressing you will be logged in. To test if your new authentication method is working just login to your server using the PuTTY profile you’ve just created. Testing SSH Key Authentication and Disabling Password Authentication:Īfter you’ve successfully generated a key-pair, uploaded your public-key on the server and created a PuTTY-Profile with your private-key it’s now time to test if your new login method is working. You’ll need to enter your key passphrase whenever you connect to your server (the key passphrase acts as another layer of security to connect to your server – almost like 2FA). How to Assign a Key Passphrase (Optional, but Recommended)Īssigning a key passphrase will enhance the private key’s security by locally encrypting (and decrypting) your private key. And if you consult the BSD System Manager’s manual, you’ll see that lines starting with # are treated as comments. You can add comments to a SSH key by typing in a space after the key and putting in the comment. How to Add a Comment to Existing Public and Private Keys (Optional) Your keys will then generate: Look at that public key! It’s so public (and hopefully safe). Just click on “Generate” and move your mouse over the blank field. If your local computer runs Windows, we recommend installing PuTTY, the free and open source SSH and terminal emulator (it also includes PuTTYgen).Īfter installing PuTTY, open the Windows search bar and search for “PuTTYgen”.Īfter opening it, this screen will appear: The PuTTY Key Generator in all its SSH key generating glory. While id_rsa is your private key, id_rsa.pub is your public key. Note: you might need to choose a filename and file save destination depending on your version of Linux.Īnd here’s the default path for the saved keys: Open a terminal and enter the following command to generate a pair of keys (assuming your local computer runs Linux):
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