11.04.2020

Use Putty To Generate Public Key

Use Putty To Generate Public Key 6,1/10 1851 votes

Table of Contents

  1. Putty Key
  2. Putty Use Private Key
  3. How To Generate Public Key With Putty
  4. Putty Use Key
  5. Use Putty To Generate Public Key Using Puttygen
Putty use private key

Introduction

SSH can handle authentication using a traditional username and password combination or by using a public and private key pair. The SSH key pair establishes trust between the client and server, thereby removing the need for a password during authentication. While not required, the SSH private key can be encrypted with a passphrase for added security.

The PuTTY SSH client for Microsoft Windows does not share the same key format as the OpenSSH client. Therefore, it is necessary to create a new SSH public and private key using the PuTTYgen tool or convert an existing OpenSSH private key.

Requirements

  • PuTTY SSH client for Microsoft Windows
  • Remote server accessible over OpenSSH

Install PuTTY and PuTTYgen

May 05, 2019  This tutorial explains how to generate SSH keys on Windows with PuTTYgen. We will also show you how to set up an SSH key-based authentication and connect to your remote Linux servers without entering a password. Jul 19, 2013 Right-click in the text field labeled Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorizedkeys file and choose Select All; Right-click again in the same text field and choose Copy. NOTE: PuTTY and OpenSSH use different formats for public SSH keys. If the SSH Key you copied starts with '- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY.' , it is in the wrong format. May 01, 2015 This video shows how to use Putty Gen to create a Key Pair, upload Public Key into AWS Cloud, use that Public Key to launch an instance, and use the private key to access the VM instance.

Both PuTTY and PuTTYgen are required to convert OpenSSH keys and to connect to the server over SSH. These two tools can be downloaded individually or, preferably, as a Windows installer from the PuTTY Download Page.

How To Configure SSH Keys Authentication With PuTTY And Linux Server In 5 Quick Steps. This tutorial explains how you can replace password-based SSH authentication with key-based authentication which is more secure because only the people that own the key can log in. 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). Open puttyGen - Go to Key Section - over your mouse on a key section before that press 'Generate' button. Download Public key and private key and copy text from key section and paste into GitLab. Open puttygen - load ppk file - Select conversions menu - Export OpenSSH key. Working with PuTTY's Public Key Format. You can click Save public key as well, but take note: The format PuTTYGen uses when it saves the public key is incompatible with the OpenSSH authorizedkeys files used for SSH key authentication on Linux servers. If you need to see the public key in the right format after the private key has been saved.

Once the PuTTY Windows installer is downloaded, double-click the executable in the Download folder and follow the installation wizard. The default settings are suitable for most installations. Both PuTTY and PuTTYgen should now be accessible from the Windows Programs list.

Use Existing Public and Private Keys

If you have an existing OpenSSH public and private key, copy the id_rsa key to your Windows desktop. This can be done by copying and pasting the contents of the file or using an SCP client such as PSCP which is supplied with the PuTTY install or FileZilla.

Next launch PuTTYgen from the Windows Programs list.

  1. Click Conversions from the PuTTY Key Generator menu and select Import key.
  2. Navigate to the OpenSSH private key and click Open.
  3. Under Actions / Save the generated key, select Save private key.
  4. Choose an optional passphrase to protect the private key.
  5. Save the private key to the desktop as id_rsa.ppk.

If the public key is already appended to the authorized_keys file on the remote SSH server, then proceed to Connect to Server with Private Key.

Otherwise, proceed to Copy Public Key to Server.

Create New Public and Private Keys

Launch PuTTYgen from the Windows Programs list and proceed with the following steps.

Generate an ssl key in putty. Working with PuTTY's Public Key Format. Open PuTTYgen. Next to Load an existing private key file, click the Load button. Navigate to the private key in your file system and select it. PuTTYgen is an key generator tool for creating SSH keys for PuTTY. It is analogous to the ssh-keygen tool used in some other SSH implementations. The basic function is to create public and private key pairs. PuTTY stores keys in its own format in.ppk files. However, the tool can also convert keys to and from other formats.

  1. Under Parameters, increase the Number of bits in a generated key: to a minimum value of 2048.
  2. Under Actions / Generate a public/private key pair, click Generate.
  3. You will be instructed to move the mouse cursor around within the PuTTY Key Generator window as a randomizer to generate the private key.
  4. Once the key information appears, click Save private key under Actions / Save the generated key.
  5. Save the private key to the desktop as id_rsa.ppk.
  6. The box under Key / Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file: contains the public key.

Copy Public Key to Server

The OpenSSH public key is located in the box under Key / Public key for pasting info OpenSSH authorized_keys file:. The public key begins with ssh-rsa followed by a string of characters.

Public
  1. Highlight entire public key within the PuTTY Key Generator and copy the text.
  2. Launch PuTTY and log into the remote server with your existing user credentials.

  3. Aws generate new key pair form runing instance. Use your preferred text editor to create and/or open the authorized_keys file:

  4. Paste the public key into the authorized_keys file.

  5. Save the file and close the text editor.

  6. Adjust the permissions of the authorized_keys file so that the file does not allow group writable permissions.

  7. Logout of the remote server.

Connect to Server with Private Key

Now it is time to test SSH key authentication. The PuTTYgen tool can be closed and PuTTY launched again.

  1. Enter the remote server Host Name or IP address under Session.
  2. Navigate to Connection > SSH > Auth.
  3. Click Browse.. under Authentication parameters / Private key file for authentication.
  4. Locate the id_rsa.ppk private key and click Open.
  5. Finally, click Open again to log into the remote server with key pair authentication.

On Windows, you can create SSH keys in many ways. This document explains how to use two SSH applications, PuTTY and Git Bash.

Joyent recommends RSA keys because the node-manta CLI programs work with RSA keys both locally and with the ssh agent. DSA keys will work only if the private key is on the same system as the CLI, and not password-protected.

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.

About PuTTY

PuTTY is an SSH client for Windows that you will use to generate your SSH keys. You can download PuTTY from www.chiark.greenend.org.uk.

When you install the PuTTY client, you also install the PuTTYgen utility. PuTTYgen is what you will use to generate your SSH key for a Windows VM.

This page gives you basic information about using PuTTY and PuTTYgen to log in to your provisioned machine. For more information on PuTTY, see the PuTTY documentation

Generating an SSH key

To generate an SSH key with PuTTYgen, follow these steps:

  1. Open the PuTTYgen program.
  2. For Type of key to generate, select SSH-2 RSA.
  3. Click the Generate button.
  4. Move your mouse in the area below the progress bar. When the progress bar is full, PuTTYgen generates your key pair.
  5. Type a passphrase in the Key passphrase field. Type the same passphrase in the Confirm passphrase field. You can use a key without a passphrase, but this is not recommended.
  6. Click the Save private key button to save the private key. You must save the private key. You will need it to connect to your machine.
  7. Right-click in the text field labeled Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file and choose Select All.
  8. Right-click again in the same text field and choose Copy.

Importing your SSH key

Now you must import the copied SSH key to the portal.

  1. After you copy the SSH key to the clipboard, return to your account page.
  2. Choose to Import Public Key and paste your SSH key into the Public Key field.
  3. In the Key Name field, provide a name for the key. Note: although providing a key name is optional, it is a best practice for ease of managing multiple SSH keys.
  4. Add the key. It will now appear in your table of keys under SSH.

PuTTY and OpenSSH use different formats of public SSH keys. If the text you pasted in the SSH Key starts with —— BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY, it is in the wrong format. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully. Your key should start with ssh-rsa AAAA….

Once you upload your SSH key to the portal, you can connect to your virtual machine from Windows through a PuTTY session.

Git Bash

The Git installation package comes with SSH. Using Git Bash, which is the Git command line tool, you can generate SSH key pairs. Git Bash has an SSH client that enables you to connect to and interact with Triton containers on Windows.

To install Git:

  1. (Download and initiate the Git installer](https://git-scm.com/download/win).
  2. When prompted, accept the default components by clicking Next.
  3. Choose the default text editor. If you have Notepad++ installed, select Notepad++ and click Next.
  4. Select to Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt and click Next.
  5. Select to Use OpenSSL library and click Next.
  6. Select to Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings and click Next.
  7. Select to Use MinTTY (The default terminal of mYSYS2) and click Next.
  8. Accept the default extra option configuration by clicking Install.

When the installation completes, you may need to restart Windows.

Launching GitBash

To open Git Bash, we recommend launching the application from the Windows command prompt:

  1. In Windows, press Start+R to launch the Run dialog.
  2. Type C:Program FilesGitbinbash.exe and press Enter.

Generating SSH keys

First, create the SSH directory and then generate the SSH key pair.

One assumption is that the Windows profile you are using is set up with administrative privileges. Given this, you will be creating the SSH directory at the root of your profile, for example:

Putty Key

  1. At the Git Bash command line, change into your root directory and type.

  1. Change into the .ssh directory C:Usersjoetest.ssh

  2. To create the keys, type:

Putty Use Private Key

  1. When prompted for a password, type apassword to complete the process. When finished, the output looks similar to:

Uploading an SSH key

To upload the public SSH key to your Triton account:

  1. Open Triton Service portal, select Account to open the Account Summary page.
  2. From the SSH section, select Import Public Key.
  3. Enter a Key Name. Although naming a key is optional, labels are a best practice for managing multiple SSH keys.
  4. Add your public SSH key.

How To Generate Public Key With Putty

When Triton finishes the adding or uploading process, the public SSH key appears in the list of SSH keys.

Putty Use Key

What are my next steps?

Use Putty To Generate Public Key Using Puttygen

  • Adding SSH keys to agent.
  • Set up the Triton CLI and CloudAPI on Windows.
  • Set up the Triton CLI and CloudAPI.
  • Create an instance in the Triton Service Portal.
  • Set up the triton-docker command line tool.
  • Visit PuTTYgen to learn more about the PuTTYgen and to seethe complete installation and usage guide.