SSH - Generate Public and Private Keys

Secure Shell (SSH) is widely used to access shell on a remote Unix-like operating system. It uses public-private key pairs to authenticate remote machine and allow access.

• • 1. ~/.ssh is where you keep the keys
  • 2. Create new key pairs: mykey, mykey.pub
  • 3. Add private key to local session
  • 4. Load the private key on login in local machine.
  • 5. Add public key in remote machine
  • 7. Genarate public key from private key

1. ~/.ssh is where you keep the keys

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In a Unix-like environment, the keys are usually kept in the .ssh directory in your home directory(~).

ls -la ~/.ssh

You may or may not have a pair of key already:

id_rsa : private key file
id_rsa.pub : public key file

The id_rsa private key file should be kept only by yourself. When you need to give out the key on request, provide the id_rsa.pub public key file.

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2. Create new key pairs: mykey, mykey.pub

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We will now create the keys using 4096-bit RSA cryptotype with our email address as the comment in the key.

• bash command:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "myemail@mydomain.com" -b 4096 -f ~/.ssh/mykey
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [Prefer a passphrase]
Enter same passphrase again:

The new keys are now in ssh folder.

Your identification has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/mykey.
Your public key has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/mykey.pub.

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3. Add private key to local session

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Change the file permission to 700.

$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh/mykey*

Start the authentication agent and add the private key.

$ eval `ssh-agent -s`
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/mykey

Above method will last until logout session.

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4. Load the private key on login in local machine.

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Use >> for append.
Don’t try to lose existing key(s) in the file.

$ echo "IdentityFile ~/.ssh/mykey" >> ~/.ssh/config

Effective upon next login.

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5. Add public key in remote machine

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First copy the mykey.pub to a remote machine.
Append the public key to the file authorized_keys.

Use >> for append.
Don’t try to lose existing key(s) in the file.

$ cat ~/.ssh/mykey.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Test your connection from local machine with private key.

$ ssh -T yourremoteid@remoteaddress

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7. Genarate public key from private key

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You can always generate the same public key from the private key, this is why you should never give out your private key.

$ ssh-keygen -y -f ~/.ssh/mykey > ~/.ssh/mykey.pub

Happy sshing!

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