This guide contains description of setting up public key authentication for use with WinSCP. You may want to learn more about public key authentication or SSH keys instead.
I set a passphrase when creating a new SSH key on my laptop. But, as I realise now, this is quite painful when you are trying to commit (Git and SVN) to a remote location over SSH many times in an. The following command creates an SSH key pair using RSA encryption and a bit length of 4096: ssh-keygen -m PEM -t rsa -b 4096 If you use the Azure CLI to create your VM with the az vm create command, you can optionally generate SSH public and private key files using the -generate-ssh-keys option. Upload the content of the public Key in the Control Panel. From the Control Panel, open the drop-down menu on your account name and click on Credentials link. In the SSH Keys section click on Add a new SSH Key and paste the content of your public key in the text area, then on Add a SSH Key.
- Configure Server to Accept Public Key
Advertisement
Before starting you should:
- Have WinSCP installed;
- Know how to connect to the server without public key authentication.
If you do not have a key pair yet, start with generating new key pair.
Connect to your SSH server using WinSCP with the SSH protocol, using other means of authentication than public key, e.g. typically using password authentication.
Once logged in, configure your server to accept your public key. That varies with SSH server software being used. The most common SSH server is OpenSSH.
You can use Session > Install Public Key into Server command on the main window, or Tools > Install Public Key into Server command on SSH > Authentication page page on Advanced Site Settings dialog. The functionality of the command is similar to that of OpenSSH
ssh-copy-id
command.Or you can configure the key manually:
- Navigate into a
.ssh
subdirectory of your account home directory. You may need to enable showing hidden files to see the directory. If the directory does not exists, you need to create it first. - Once there, open a file
authorized_keys
for editing. Again you may have to create this file, if this is your first key. - Switch to the PuTTYgen window, select all of the text in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file box, and copy it to the clipboard (
Ctrl+C
). Then, switch back to the editor and insert the data into the open file, making sure it ends up all on one line. Save the file. WinSCP can show you the public key too. - Ensure that your account home directory, your
.ssh
directory and fileauthorized_keys
are not group-writable or world-writable. Recommended permissions for.ssh
directory are700
. Recommended permissions forauthorized_keys
files are600
. Read more about changing permissions.
- Save a public key file from PuTTYgen, and copy that into the
.ssh2
subdirectory of your account home directory. - In the same subdirectory, edit (or create) a file called
authorization
. In this file you should put a line likeKey mykey.pub
, withmykey.pub
replaced by the name of your key file.
For other SSH server software, you should refer to the manual for that server.
When configuring session, specify path to your private key on SSH > Authentication page of Advanced Site Settings dialog.
Alternatively, load the private key into Pageant.
Windows server 2003 key generator download. Cloud providers have typically their own mechanism to setup a public key authentication to virtual servers running in the cloud.
For details see guides for connecting to:
- Amazon EC2;
- Google Compute Engine;
- Microsoft Azure.
- Using Public Keys for Authentication;
- Using PuTTYgen;
- Understanding SSH Key Pairs.
Introduction
SSH (Secure Shell) allows secure remote connections between two systems. With this cryptographic protocol, you can manage machines, copy, or move files on a remote server via encrypted channels.
There are two ways to login onto a remote system over SSH – using password authentication or public key authentication (passwordless SSH login).
In this tutorial, you will find out how to set up and enable passwordless SSH login.
- Access to command line/terminal window
- User with sudo or root privileges
- A local server and a remote server
- SSH access to a remote server via command line/terminal window
You may already have an SSH key pair generated on your machine. To see whether you have SSH keys on the system, run the command:
If the output tells you there are no such files, move on to the next step, which shows you how to generate SSH keys.
In case you do have them, you can use the existing keys, back them up and create a new pair or overwrite it.
1. The first thing you need to do is generate an SSH key pair on the machine you are currently working on.
In this example, we generate a 4096-bit key pair. We also add an email address, however this is optional. The command is:
2. Next, type in the location where you want to store the keys or hit Enter to accept the default path.
3. It also asks you to set a passphrase. Although this makes the connection even more secure, it may interrupt when setting up automated processes. Therefore, you can type in a passphrase or just press Enter to skip this step.
4. The output then tells you where it stored the identification and public key and gives you the key fingerprint.
5. Verify you have successfully created the SSH key pair by running the command:
You should see the path of the identification key and the public key, as in the image below:
You can upload the public SSH key to a remote server with the
ssh-copy-id
command or the cat
command. Below you can find both options.![Generate Generate](https://docs.microsoft.com/bs-latn-ba/azure/virtual-machines/linux/media/ssh-from-windows/save-public-key.png)
Option 1: Upload Public Key Using the ssh-copy-id Command
To enable passwordless access, you need to upload a copy of the public key to the remote server.
1. Connect to the remote server and use the
ssh-copy-id
command:2. The public key is then automatically copied into the .ssh/authorized_keys file.
Another way to copy the public key to the server is by using the
cat
command.1. Start by connecting to the server and creating a .ssh directory on it.
2. Then, type in the password for the remote user.
3. Now you can upload the public key from the local machine to the remote server. The command also specifies that the key will be stored under the name authorized_keys in the newly created .ssh directory:
With the SSH key pair generated and the public key uploaded to the remote server, you should now be able to connect to your dedicated server without providing a password.
Check whether the setup works by running the command:
The system should directly log you in to the remote server, no password required.
Note: Once you verify that you can SHH into the remote serve without a password, consider disabling SSH password authentication altogether. It will add another layer of security and secure your server from brute-force attacks.
Optional: Troubleshooting Remote Server File Permissions
File permissions on the remote server may cause issues with passwordless SSH login. This is a common issue with older versions of SSH.
![Generate New Ssh Pass Key Generate New Ssh Pass Key](https://help.switch.ch/export/sites/help/engines/.galleries/images/createsshkey1.png)
If you are still prompted for a password after going through all the steps, start by editing file permissions on the remote server.
- Set permissions 700 for the .ssh directory.
- Set permissions 640 for the .ssh/authorized_keys directory.
Generate New Ssh Pass Key Largo
Edit file permissions with the following command:
Enter your password when prompted. There will be no output if the action was successful. The issue should be resolved now.
If you want to automate updates and other tasks, or seamlessly SSH into a remote server, you should enable passwordless SSH login.
The instructions outlined in this article should have helped you to do so.
For more SSH commands, check out these 19 common SSH commands in Linux with examples.
Generate New Ssh Pass Key West
Next you should also read
When establishing a remote connection between a client and a server, a primary concern is ensuring a secure…
Hackers are always on the lookout for server vulnerabilities. Minimize risks and be confident your data is…
The article covers the 5 most common and efficient ways to secure an SSH connection. The listed solutions go…
Generate New Ssh Pass Keys
Rsync is a Linux tool that allows you to transfer data over SSH to a remote server securely. Use the options…