Verified and Tested 2/8/15

Putty Ssh Public Key

1. Sep 26, 2019 PuTTY. PuTTY is an SSH client for Windows. You can use PuTTY to generate SSH keys. PuTTY is a free open-source terminal emulator that functions much like the Terminal application in macOS in a Windows environment. This section shows you how to manually generate and upload an SSH key when working with PuTTY in the Windows environment.
2. Jul 19, 2013 First complete the section in this tutorial titled Generating OpenSSH-compatible Keys for Use with PuTTY. Then, skip to Step Three of How to Use SSH Keys with DigitalOcean Droplets. This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with DigitalOcean's guide on How to Log Into Your Droplet with PuTTY (for windows users).
3. Generating Keys Command Line. If you currently have access to SSH on your server, you can generate SSH keys on the command line using the ssh-keygen utility which is installed by default on our servers.Run it on your server with no options, or arguments to generate a 2048-bit RSA key.
4. This guide describes how to generate and use a private/public key pair to log in to a remote system with SSH using PuTTY.PuTTY is an SSH client that is available for Windows and Linux (although it is more common on Windows systems).

Introduction

This guide will show you how to generate and use SSH keys (public and private) using PuTTYgen and PuTTY for Linux servers.

How to Generate and Use an SSH Key

Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu Putty

Generate rsa key cisco switch. First thing’s first. We must generate our public and private keys using PuTTYgen. PuTTYgen and PuTTY can be downloaded here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Generating Keys Command Line. If you currently have access to SSH on your server, you can generate SSH keys on the command line using the ssh-keygen utility which is installed by default on our servers. Run it on your server with no options, or arguments to generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair (which is plenty secure). Jul 19, 2013  How To Create SSH Keys With PuTTY to Connect to a VPS Benefits of Public & Private SSH Keys. If your headless, or remote. This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with DigitalOcean's guide on How. PuTTY Key Generator (a.k.a. PuTTYgen) While PuTTY is a.

Once they have been downloaded to a proper directory, open PuTTYgen first. Click on “Generate” to begin the key generation process. It will ask you to move your mouse around over the program window to help generate “random” data.

When the key is generated, the window will look like the picture below.

Sample public Key

Most of the information presented here is superfluous except in special instances. All you will want to do is update the “Key comment” box with a better friendly name for the key. Once you have done that, select all of the text in the “Key” box and paste it into Notepad or Notepad++ (preferred). Save that text file somewhere safe. You will also need to click “Save private key” on this window. Name it something useful and place it somewhere secure as well.

To use this key with a PuTTY connection, simply select the “Auth” menu on the left side of the program. This can be found under Connection -> SSH -> Auth. In this menu, there is a box titled “Private key file for authentication.” Click browse and find the .ppk file that you saved in the previous step.

At this point, if you name and save your connection in the “Session” category, you won’t ever have to follow this process again for that server/IP. Otherwise, you would need to choose your key each time you connect.

Creating a New Server with this SSH Key for Linux Servers

Creating a cloud server that uses an SSH key is simple. You will first need to setup your key in the cloud portal.

Click on “SSH Keys” on the left side under “Manage Servers.”

From there, click “Add SSH Key.”

When the window pops up, simply name your key, and paste the public key text (that you saved to a notepad file in a previous step) into the large box.

Cloud Portal:Add SSH Key

Click “Add Key.” If there were no issues with the key (inappropriate line breaks, errors, etc) it will save to the portal and be accessible for new servers.

To create a server that utilizes this key for root login, simply follow the “create server” steps found here.

-When choosing your server size and OS, you will see an option at the bottom that says “Pick SSH Key.” You will see the key we just created in that list. When the server comes online, simply use the previous PuTTY steps to connect to the server using that public key. The username will always be root when using our public key system.

Adding the Public SSH Key to an Existing Server

The steps for enabling public/private key login on a standard server that was not provisioned with a key originally is quite simple as well

Simply use PuTTY to log into the server as usual using the root account and password. You may already want to save a PuTTY profile with your key, even though the server will reject it until it is configured.

For all Linux-based operating systems, you only need to create root’s .ssh directory, and paste the public key into a file named “authorized_keys”

Generating Ssh Keys In Putty Key

From here, you can either use a text editing program to paste the key in (vi/vim/nano, etc), or you can use echo. The echo command would look something like this:

Generate Ssh Key In Putty

At this point, you can log out of the server and log in using the previously stated method to open a PuTTY session with a private key attached. Upon entering the username “root”, the server should allow you to login without entering a password. If successful, you should see a message that states “Authenticating with public key.” The screenshot below has an example:

Sample Log in

Done! At this point, if you plan to access the server often, you will definitely want to save a profile. You can also setup a username to auto-login with under Data -> “Auto-login username.” Simply type root into that box and save it along with the private key and IP address to a PuTTY profile, and you can have instant passwordless login access to your server!

For more information about PuTTY, visit https://www.putty.org/.
For more information about PuTTYgen, visit https://www.puttygen.com/.

The PuTTYgen program is part of PuTTY, an open source networking client for the Windows platform.

1. Download and install PuTTY or PuTTYgen.

   To download PuTTY or PuTTYgen, go to http://www.putty.org/ and click the You can download PuTTY here link.

2. Run the PuTTYgen program.
3. Set the Type of key to generate option to SSH-2 RSA.
4. In the Number of bits in a generated key box, enter 2048.
5. Click Generate to generate a public/private key pair.

   As the key is being generated, move the mouse around the blank area as directed.

6. (Optional) Enter a passphrase for the private key in the Key passphrase box and reenter it in the Confirm passphrase box.

   Note:

   While a passphrase is not required, you should specify one as a security measure to protect the private key from unauthorized use. When you specify a passphrase, a user must enter the passphrase every time the private key is used.

7. Click Save private key to save the private key to a file. To adhere to file-naming conventions, you should give the private key file an extension of .ppk (PuTTY private key).

   Note:

   The .ppk file extension indicates that the private key is in PuTTY's proprietary format. You must use a key of this format when using PuTTY as your SSH client. It cannot be used with other SSH client tools. Refer to the PuTTY documentation to convert a private key in this format to a different format.
8. Select all of the characters in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file box.

   Make sure you select all the characters, not just the ones you can see in the narrow window. If a scroll bar is next to the characters, you aren't seeing all the characters.

9. Right-click somewhere in the selected text and select Copy from the menu.
10. Open a text editor and paste the characters, just as you copied them. Start at the first character in the text editor, and do not insert any line breaks.
11. Save the text file in the same folder where you saved the private key, using the .pub extension to indicate that the file contains a public key.
12. If you or others are going to use an SSH client that requires the OpenSSH format for private keys (such as the ssh utility on Linux), export the private key:
    1. On the Conversions menu, choose Export OpenSSH key.
    2. Save the private key in OpenSSH format in the same folder where you saved the private key in .ppk format, using an extension such as .openssh to indicate the file's content.