An SSH Key allows you to log into your server without needing a password. SSH Keys can be automatically added to servers during the installation process.

I want to add a user to Red Hat Linux that will not use a password for logging in, but instead use a public key for ssh. Then create.ssh/authorizedkeys file in their home directory with their public key. Share improve this answer. Add new user without password but not disabled.

  • The.pub file is your public key, and the other file is the corresponding private key. If you don’t have these files (or you don’t even have a.ssh directory), you can create them by running a program called ssh-keygen, which is provided with the SSH package on Linux/macOS systems and comes with Git for Windows.
  • How to Create SSH Keys with OpenSSH on MacOS or Linux Validated on 28 August 2019 • Posted on 19 June 2018 DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines (VMs) that run on top of virtualized hardware.

Creating an SSH key on Windows

Generate New Ssh Key On Linu

The simplest way to create SSH key on Windows is to use PuTTYgen.

  • Download and run PuTTYgen.
  • Click the 'Generate' button.
  • For additional security, you can enter a key passphrase. This will be required to use the SSH key, and will prevent someone with access to your key file from using the key.
  • Once the key has been generated, click 'Save Private Key'. Make sure you save this somewhere safe, as it is not possible to recover this file if it gets lost
  • Select all of the text in the 'Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file'. This is what you would need to enter into the control panel to use the SSH key.

Creating an SSH key on Linux

The tools to create and use SSH are standard, and should be present on most Linux distributions. With the following commands, you can generate ssh key.

  • Run: ssh-keygen -t rsa. For a more secure 4096-bit key, run: ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
  • Press enter when asked where you want to save the key (this will use the default location).
  • Enter a passphrase for your key.
  • Run cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub - this will give you the key in the proper format to paste into the control panel.
  • Make sure you backup the ~/.ssh/id_rsa file. This cannot be recovered if it is lost.

Adding an SSH key to your control panel

  • Once you're logged in, go to https://my.vultr.com/sshkeys.
  • Click 'Add SSH Key'.
  • Enter a descriptive name for the key.
  • Paste in your SSH public key. This is a long string beginning with 'ssh-rsa'. You should have saved this from when you generated your key.
  • Click 'Add SSH Key'.
  • Now, when you're deploying servers you will be able to select which SSH keys you want to add to the newly deployed server. Remember to select the keys before the initial server deployment, otherwise you will need to log into the newly created server and add the SSH keys manually.

Limitations

  • SSH keys are only available for Linux and FreeBSD. They are not supported for Windows, custom ISOs, nor snapshot restores.
  • SSH keys can only be managed from the control panel during deployment. You cannot use the control panel to manage them on an already-installed instance.

Connecting to a server using an SSH key from a Windows client

  • Download and run the PuTTY SSH client.
  • Type the IP address or Username + IP address ( user@x.x.x.x ) of the destination server under the 'Host Name' field on the 'Session' category.
  • Navigate to the 'Connection -> SSH -> Auth' category (left-hand side).
  • Click 'Browse..' near 'Private key file for authentication'. Choose the private key file (ending in .ppk) that you generated earlier with PuTTYgen.
  • Click 'Open' to initiate the connection.
  • When finished, end your session by pressing Ctrl+d.

Connecting to a server using an SSH key from a Linux client

  • Check that your Linux operating system has an SSH client installed ( which ssh ). If a client is not installed, you will need to install one.
  • Initiate a connection: ssh -i /path/to/id_rsa user@x.x.x.x
  • When finished, end your session by pressing Ctrl+d.
I recently read that SSH keys provide a secure way of logging into a Linux and Unix-based server. How do I set up SSH keys on a Linux or Unix based systems? In SSH for Linux/Unix, how do I set up public key authentication?
This page explains a public key and shows you how to set up SSH keys on a Linux or Unix-like server. I am assuming that you are using Linux or Unix-like server and client with the following software:
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  • OpenSSH SSHD server
  • OpenSSH ssh client and friends on Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, {Free,Open,Net}BSD, RHEL, CentOS, MacOS/OSX, AIX, HP-UX and co).

What is a public key authentication?

OpenSSH server supports various authentication schema. The two most popular are as follows:

  1. Passwords based authentication
  2. Public key based authentication. It is an alternative security method to using passwords. This method is recommended on a VPS, cloud, dedicated or even home based server.

Generate New Ssh Key Mac

How to set up SSH keys

Steps to setup secure ssh keys:

  1. Create the ssh key pair using ssh-keygen command.
  2. Copy and install the public ssh key using ssh-copy-id command on a Linux or Unix server.
  3. Add yourself to sudo or wheel group admin account.
  4. Disable the password login for root account.
  5. Test your password less ssh keys login using ssh user@server-name command.

Let us see all steps in details.

How do I set up public key authentication?

You must generate both a public and a private key pair. For example:
Where,

  • server1.cyberciti.biz – You store your public key on the remote hosts and you have an accounts on this Linux/Unix based server.
  • client1.cyberciti.biz – Your private key stays on the desktop/laptop/ computer (or local server) you use to connect to server1.cyberciti.biz server. Do not share or give your private file to anyone.

In public key based method you can log into remote hosts and server, and transfer files to them, without using your account passwords. Feel free to replace server1.cyberciti.biz and client1.cyberciti.biz names with your actual setup. Adobe photoshop cs key generator. Enough talk, let’s set up public key authentication. Open the Terminal and type following commands if .ssh directory does not exists:

1: Create the key pair

On the computer (such as client1.cyberciti.biz), generate a key pair for the protocol.

Sample outputs:

You need to set the Key Pair location and name. I recommend you use the default location if you do not yet have another key there, for example: $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa. You will be prompted to supply a passphrase (password) for your private key. I suggest that you setup a passphrase when prompted. You should see two new files in $HOME/.ssh/ directory:

  1. $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa– contains your private key.
  2. $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub – contain your public key.

Optional syntax for advance users

The following syntax specifies the 4096 of bits in the RSA key to creation (default 2048):
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f ~/.ssh/vps-cloud.web-server.key -C 'My web-server key'
Where,

Ssh Key Setup

  • -t rsa : Specifies the type of key to create. The possible values are “rsa1” for protocol version 1 and “dsa”, “ecdsa”, “ed25519”, or “rsa” for protocol version 2.
  • -b 4096 : Specifies the number of bits in the key to create
  • -f ~/.ssh/vps-cloud.web-server.key : Specifies the filename of the key file.
  • -C 'My web-server key' : Set a new comment.

2: Install the public key in remote server

Use scp or ssh-copy-id command to copy your public key file (e.g., $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to your account on the remote server/host (e.g., nixcraft@server1.cyberciti.biz). To do so, enter the following command on your client1.cyberciti.biz:

OR just copy the public key in remote server as authorized_keys in ~/.ssh/ directory:

A note about appending the public key in remote server

On some system ssh-copy-id command may not be installed, so use the following commands (when prompted provide the password for remote user account called vivek) to install and append the public key:

3: Test it (type command on client1.cyberciti.biz)

The syntax is as follows for the ssh command:

Or copy a text file called foo.txt:

You will be prompted for a passphrase. To get rid of passphrase whenever you log in the remote host, try ssh-agent and ssh-add commands.

What are ssh-agent and ssh-add, and how do I use them?

To get rid of a passphrase for the current session, add a passphrase to ssh-agent and you will not be prompted for it when using ssh or scp/sftp/rsync to connect to hosts with your public key. The syntax is as follows:

Type the ssh-add command to prompt the user for a private key passphrase and adds it to the list maintained by ssh-agent command:

Enter your private key passphrase. Now try again to log into user@server1.cyberciti.biz and you will not be prompted for a password:

One can list public key parameters of all identities with the -L option:
ssh-add -L
Deleting all private keys from the ssh-agent can be done with the -D option as follows:
ssh-add -D
When you log out kill the ssh agent, run:
kill $SSH_AGENT_PID
You can also add something like the below to your shell startup to kill ssh-agent at logout:
trap 'kill $SSH_AGENT_PID' 0

4: Disable the password based login on a server

Login to your server, type:

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config on server1.cyberciti.biz using a text editor such as nano or vim:

Warning: Make sure you add yourself to sudoers files. Otherwise you will not able to login as root later on. See “How To Add, Delete, and Grant Sudo Privileges to Users on a FreeBSD Server” for more info.

$ sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
OR directly jump to PermitRootLogin line using a vim text editor:
$ sudo vim +/PermitRootLogin /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Find PermitRootLogin and set it as follows:

Save and close the file. I am going to add a user named vivek to sudoers on Ubuntu Linux:
# adduser vivek
Finally, reload/restart the sshd server, type command as per your Linux/Unix version:

5: How to add or replace a passphrase for an existing private key?

To to change your passphrase type the following command:
ssh-keygen -p

6: How do I backup an existing private/public key?

Just copy files to your backup server or external USB pen/hard drive:

How do I protect my ssh keys?

  1. Always use a strong passphrase.
  2. Do not share your private keys anywhere online or store in insecure cloud storage.
  3. Restrict privileges of the account.

How do I create and setup an OpenSSH config file to create shortcuts for servers I frequently access?

See how to create and use an OpenSSH ssh_config file for more info.

Conclusion

This page explained how to set up ssh keys for authentication purposes. For more info see the following resources:

  • Man pages – ssh-keygen(1)
  • OpenSSH project homepage here.

And, there you have it, ssh set up with public key based authentication for Linux or Unix-like systems.

Generate New Ssh Key On Linux Windows 10

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