How To Create Putty-based RSA Public-key For OpenSSH Server?
If you want to remote access Linux server via SSH protocol from Windows system, I recommend you to use Putty (a Telnet/SSH freeware for Windows and UNIX; developed by an English man called Simon Tatham).
To strengthen security, don’t ever use plain text password, try to use RSA-based Public-key cryptography for user authentication. The Puttygen (Putty Key Generator; another freeware of Simon) can generate both RSA and DSA-based key pair.
However, the RSA public-key generated by Puttygen is not 100% compatible with OpenSSH server (the dominant SSH server in most Linux distributions).
To make it work, you need to modify the Putty-based RSA public-key before appending it to authorized_keys file.
Steps to generate Putty-based RSA key pair to login Linux OpenSSH server
1) Open Puttygen program and click Generate button to create a 1024-bit, SSH-2 RSA key pair. After clicking the Generate button, move the mouse cursor inside the Key frame repeatedly (Puttygen need these movements to create a “perfect random key pair”).
2) Once the key pair generation complete, think of a “strong” password and enter it twice in the Key Passphrase and Confirm Passphrase text boxes provided in Key frame.
3) Click Save Public-key and Save Private-key buttons to keep these two keys in local hard disk.
4) Transfer the public-key to your Linux home directory (assuming this public-key is made for yourself) and open it with vi editor (any text editor of your choice).
5) The original Putty-based RSA public-key is similar to this:
You need to delete the lines started with “4 dash” and “Comment:” (i.e. first two and the last line).
Next, join all the remaining lines into one, single line.
Then, insert this
The final, modified Putty-based RSA public-key will looks like this:
6) Now, append the modified Putty-based RSA public key to $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file and you’re ready to use Putty to access Linux OpenSSH server with private and public key generated by Puttygen.
However, the RSA public-key generated by Puttygen is not 100% compatible with OpenSSH server (the dominant SSH server in most Linux distributions).
To make it work, you need to modify the Putty-based RSA public-key before appending it to authorized_keys file.
Steps to generate Putty-based RSA key pair to login Linux OpenSSH server
1) Open Puttygen program and click Generate button to create a 1024-bit, SSH-2 RSA key pair. After clicking the Generate button, move the mouse cursor inside the Key frame repeatedly (Puttygen need these movements to create a “perfect random key pair”).
2) Once the key pair generation complete, think of a “strong” password and enter it twice in the Key Passphrase and Confirm Passphrase text boxes provided in Key frame.
3) Click Save Public-key and Save Private-key buttons to keep these two keys in local hard disk.
4) Transfer the public-key to your Linux home directory (assuming this public-key is made for yourself) and open it with vi editor (any text editor of your choice).
5) The original Putty-based RSA public-key is similar to this:
You need to delete the lines started with “4 dash” and “Comment:” (i.e. first two and the last line).
Next, join all the remaining lines into one, single line.
Then, insert this
ssh-rsa keyword (with a trailing space) in front of the single line.The final, modified Putty-based RSA public-key will looks like this:
6) Now, append the modified Putty-based RSA public key to $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file and you’re ready to use Putty to access Linux OpenSSH server with private and public key generated by Puttygen.
Custom Search
2010 •