Mac Os Generate Ssh Key 4096
PuTTYgen is a key generator tool for creating pairs of public and private SSH keys. It is one of the components of the open-source networking client PuTTY. Although originally written for Microsoft Windows operating system, it is now officially available for multiple operating systems including macOS, Linux. PuTTYgen.exe is the graphical tool on Windows OS. While on the other side, Linux OS has the only command-line version could be accessible using SSH commands.
- 1 Download PuTTYgen
- 1.1 Download PuTTYgen on Windows
- 1.2 Download PuTTYgen for Mac
- 1.3 Download PuTTYgen for Ubuntu/Linux
- 1.3.3 Types of Keys Supported on PuTTYgen
Default software and Mac OS X. In order to generate the key I prefer to use OpenSSL directly rather than the ssh-keygen tool. While it is possible to provide flags to ssh-keygen using OpenSSL gives us access to options that are not avaiable in the standard Mac OS X version of SSH but doesn't require us to build the SSH client from scratch. Generate 4098 Bit Key Generate 4096 Bit DSA Key. RSA is very old and popular asymmetric encryption algorithm. It is used most of the systems by default. There are some alternatives to RSA like DSA. We can not generate 4096 bit DSA keys because it algorithm do not supports. Generate 2048 Bit Key. The default key size for the ssh-keygen is 2048. Sep 26, 2019 Now you must import the copied SSH key to the portal. After you copy the SSH key to the clipboard, return to your account page. Choose to Import Public Key and paste your SSH key into the Public Key field. 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.
Puttygen aka Putty Key Generator
The key generation utility – PuTTYgen can create various public-key cryptosystems including Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), and Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) keys.
The aforementioned public-key cryptosystems principally focus on secure data transmission and digital signatures.
Although PuTTYgen collects keys in its native file format i.e. .ppk files, the keys can easily be converted to any file format. For Windows, the software interface is PuTTYgen.exe, whereas, for Linux OS the command-line adaptation is available using SSH commands.
How to use PuTTYgen?
PuTTYgen is used to generate public or private key pair for creating SSH keys. Below is the complete guidance about how to generate RSA key in the Windows operating system:
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. The key files are stored in the /.ssh. How to upload an SSH key via the DreamCompute dashboard; Connect to your DreamCompute Instance with SSH keys in Mac or Linux; How to configure passwordless login in Mac OS X and Linux; Creating and importing a Key pair using the OpenStack CLI; Creating a new Key pair in Windows. May 29, 2016 The most effective and fastest way is to use command line tools: codeopenssl genrsa -out mykey.pem 4096 openssl rsa -in mykey.pem -pubout mykey.pub /codeIt’ll generate RSA key pair in code mykey.pem/code and code mykey.pub/code. I'm trying to create a private key and having an issue. When I use ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C 'youremail@example.com', I get a private key in the following format.
- Once you install the PuTTY on your machine, you can easily run PuTTYgen. For the same, go to Windows -> Start Menu -> All Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTYgen.
- You will see the PuTTY key generator dialog box on your screen
- You will find a “Generate” button in that dialog. Clicking on it will lead to generating the keys for you.
- Now you will need to add a unique key passphrase in the Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase field.
- Click on the “Save Public Key” and “Save Private Key” buttons to save your public and private keys.
- You will see the text starting with ssh-RSA in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file field which is located at the top of the window. Copy that entire text to your clipboard by pressing ctrl+c as you will require the key to paste on your clipboard in the public key tool of control panel or directly on the cloud server.
Various Ways to Use RSA Key Pair
RSA key pair generated through PuTTYgen is used in two various ways defined as below:
- To assign while creating a new cloud server
You can choose the public key from the given list of keys at the time of creating a cloud server. If you don’t find your key in that list, then first add and then assign it. - Assign to an existing cloud server
At the time of connecting to the cloud server, first of all, you need to tell PuTTY to use it for utilizing your newly created RSA key pair.
PuTTYgen being a component of the terminal emulator PuTTY does not have to be downloaded separately, hence, comes with the PuTTY .msi installation package. You can follow the simple steps to download PuTTYgen software for your system. That is the reason why you don’t need to download PuTTYgen separately. Once you download PuTTY software, you will be able to install and run PuTTYgen easily in no time. Below is the complete instruction about how to download and install PuTTY on Windows.
Apart from that, it is also integrated into third-party programs such as WinSCP installation package. Below you can find a complete PuTTYgen download and installation guide for all operating systems.
Download PuTTYgen on Windows
To download PuTTYgen the primary requisite is to acquire the copy of PuTTY installation package. For the 64-bit operating system, one must install the 64-bit version of PuTTY, i.e. putty-64bit-<version>-installer.msi.Similarly, for the 32-bit operating system, the respective 32-bit version of PuTTY, i.e. putty-<version>-installer.msi needs to be installed.
To get PuTTY, go to PuTTY Installation Download page, whereby the complete installation package will be available with setup instructions, installation guide, and download links to all other components of PuTTY such as putty.exe, pscp.exe, psftp.exe, puttytel.exe, plink.exe, pageant.exe and putty.zip.
Following the successful download of the PuTTY installation package. It is time to install the program. Go to How to install PuTTY on Windows, whereby you will find the step by step guidance for PuTTY installation for Windows operating system.
After successfully downloading and installing PuTTY on your Windows machine, you are just 2-3 clicks away to run PuTTYgen. Follow the below-given step by step guidance to run PuTTYgen:
Run PuTTYgen on Windows
To run PuTTYgen, Go to Windows -> Start Menu -> All Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTYgen. You will see a window for the PuTTY Key Generator on your screen.
Voila! Now you can generate public or private key pair using PuTTYgen.
Download PuTTYgen for Mac
Below is the detailed guide to download PuTTYgen on Mac operating system. Mac OS has a built-in command-line SSH client known as Terminal. To utilize it, go to Finder and then opt for Go -> utilities from the top menu. After that find the terminal which supports SSH connections to remote servers.
However, to run PuTTYgen for mac, the first one must have to install PuTTY. There are multiple ways to install PuTTY, which are Homebrew or MacPorts. Both alternatives will also install the command-line of adaptations of PuTTYgen.
Ported PuTTY for Mac
Mac has the port of PuTTY which can be installed in various ways described as below:
- Installation using Homebrew:
First, install the ‘brew command line’ Once installed use the below-given command to install PuTTY:-sudo brew install putty
- Installation using MacPorts:
First of all, one must install MacPorts and then use the command-line to install PuTTY. Here is the command to install PuTTY via MacPortssudo port install putty
Additionally, a user can also add a shortcut to the desktop by writing the following command line–cp /opt/local/bin/putty ~/Desktop/PuTTY
However, there is an alternative way to install PuTTY on Mac OS. Cyberduck is a widely used Mac OS SSH Client. Once PuTTY installed on the Mac OS, a user can convert PuTTY derived private key format to OpenSSH.
To convert the private key to standard PEM format, type the following command –
puttygen privatekey.ppk -O private-openssh -o privatekey.pem
You can also read the guide to convert .pem file to .ppk using puttygen.
Download PuTTYgen for Ubuntu/Linux
To download PuTTYgen for Ubuntu (Linux) operating system, a user to first install PuTTY. However, in some Linux distributions, the SSH key generation tool – PuTTYgen needs to be installed independently from the PuTTY client.
For example, Debian Linux requires the below-given code to install PuTTYgen:
sudo apt install putty-tools
Generate Key Pair for Authentication in Linux
To create the key pair for authentication in Linux use the below command:-
puttygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C 'user@host' -o keyfile.ppk
Various Command Line Options of PuTTY in Linux
Below are few important command line options in the Linux operating system for PuTTY:
PuTTYgen [-t keytype [-b bits] [-q] keyfile]
[-C new-comment] [-P]
[-O output-type -p -l -L]
[-o output-file]
Mac Os Generate Ssh Key Pair
Options:
- Keyfile – It is the name of the existing key file to read at the time of changing the current key.
- –t keytype – The command specifies the type of key to creating. Its acceptable values are RSA and dsa.rsa1.
- -b bits – This command specifies a total number of bit in a particular key. 1024 is the perfect size for DSA key, while 2048 or 4096 are the perfect size for RSA keys.
- –q – The command suppresses the message about progress at the time of key generation.
- -C new-comment – The command will specify the comment to describe the key. It can be used for the new and/or existing key. Key operation is not affected by a comment. However, it is used to recognize the key owner, it’s not reliable completely as any value can be applied to it.
- –P – Using the command will update the passphrase of a key. Passphrase helps to encrypt the private key. As passphrase can’t add or update on a command line, it prompts a new passphrase tool to alter it.
- –old-passphrase-file – The old password of the key remains in this file. The command is used when the key is protected by a passphrase.
- –new-passphrase file – This command prompts the new passphrase of the key. It comes in the action either at the time of generating a new key or while applying –P command to change the passphrase.
- -O output-type – This command defines what to give in output. By default, the private key is the output.
Thus, above are the prominent commands of PuTTYgen in Linux operating system. Besides that, there are many other commands available to perform various tasks from the command prompt in Linux at flank speed.
Types of Keys Supported on PuTTYgen
It is important to know the types of key PuTTYgen supports prior to using it. Below are the key types that it currently supports for SSH-2 and SSH-1 protocol:-
- SSH-1 protocol:- For SSH-1 only supports one key i.e. Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA)
- SSH-2 protocol: – SSH-2 supports multiple key types that include – Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and Ed25519.
The above description is a detailed brief on downloading and running PuTTYgen on all major operating systems. For further details please check the Download PuTTY page.
This is a brief guide to creating a public/private key pair that can be used for OpenSSL.While the 'easy' version will work, I find it convenient to generate a single PEM bundleand then export the private/public key from that as needed. This document also covers howto add and remove a password from your private key and how to make sure that keychainwill automatically unlock it when you sign in.
Just make it work
Generate an ssh key-pair:
If you just pound enter through the setup procedure then you will end up with a new keypair created in the default location: /Users/yourname/.ssh/
. There will be two files:
id_rsa
This is your private key, you must keep it secret and never allow anybodyelse to gain control of it. Treat this key like a password, keep it safe and makea backup copy. You can add it to keychain usingssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa
.id_rsa.pub
This is your public key, you can share it freely. This part of the keyis used during authentication to encode a message which can only be decoded with theprivate key. It cannot be used to derive the private key so there is no risk insharing it.
When a server administrator asks for a copy of your public key, send them a copy of theid_rsa.pub
file. They'll be able to add it to your user account's list of authorizedkeys and that will enable you to log in without typing a password.
Doing it the hard way
This method involves creating the keys as a bundle, exporting the public key andmanually setting the permssions on all of the paths. You'll also have to configureOpenSSH to use your new bundle for authentication.
A summary of the steps follows:
Rational
I prefer to generate a certificate using OpenSSL directly, then export the private orpublic-key in the necessary format as needed. The benefits to this appraoch are three-fold:
- This is a process similar to the one you'd use to generate certificates used forother tasks like S/MIME or to become part of a signed certificate for HTTPS.
- There is a single certificate file from which you can derive the private or publickey in whichever format you need. It's much easier to manage one key than two, oreven several if you require the key in different formats.
- You gain control over the key length, encryption method, and algorithm so that youcan consciously decide to use weaker keys for old/slow hardware (e.g. the RaspberryPi media server in your closet) and strong but slower keys where appropriate.
Default software and Mac OS X
In order to generate the key I prefer to use OpenSSL directly rather than the ssh-keygen tool.While it is possible to provide flags to ssh-keygen
using OpenSSL gives us access to optionsthat are not avaiable in the standard Mac OS X version of SSH but doesn't require us to buildthe SSH client from scratch.
Update OpenSSL
Unfortunately the version of OpenSSL that ships with Mac OS x is rather dated and so it'smissing some of the features of the latest versions. One of those features is the genpkey
command which is the new recommended way to generate keys. Assuming you have Homebrewinstalled (see: https://brew.sh) you can install an up-to-date version of OpenSSL with:
Many packages that you install with homebrew are likely to depend on OpenSSL anyway so thisis not a terrible idea even if you don't care about using OpenSSL directly.
Updating OpenSSH
If you're interested in rebuilding openssh you should link against LibreSSL sothat passwords can be installed in your keychain.
This is a relatively new option and caution should be taken because compatibilitymay not be perfect. LibreSSL is not intended to be a 1:1 replacement for OpenSSL.
It appears that just building OpenSSH will not have it request key information fromthe Mac OS X keychain, nor will it automatically start SSH-Agent so there may besome trouble-shooting steps required if you prefer to go this path. I do not builda new version of SSH.
Creating directories
OpenSSH requires that keys be stored in ~/.ssh
and that path must be restrictedso that only the user can access it. It also requires that any identify files beaccessible only by the user too. Permssions for ~/.ssh/config
can be more relaxedbut it is good practice to keep those private so as not to leak inforamtion aboutuser names or servers you connect to.
Create the directories by running:
RandomKeygen is a free mobile-friendly tool that offers randomly generated keys and passwords you can use to secure any application, service or device. KEY RandomKeygen - The Secure Password & Keygen Generator. Online license key generator from registration id card.
While this will create the directory you will have to modify the default permissions.Read/write/execute for the owner and no access for any other user is required. Recall,the execute flag on a directory allows you to view its content.
You might want to create an empty ssh config file and set appropriatepermissions so that you don't have to remember how to do it later whenthere's some problem and you are half-asleep, drunk, and responding to aPagerDuty alert.
You can save a few copy steps if you're following this guide by changinginto your ssh path for the remaining steps:
Generating keys
The first step to generating keys is to create the bundle using OpenSSL. Thisapproach allows us to specify a few extra options when creating keys that arenormally hidden by ssh-keygen
:
The options: are
Generate Ssh Key Putty
genpkey
is the new command for generating keys, it supercedes the oldgenrsa
method. Mac OS X's default OpenSSL does not have this command sobuilding your own version is required.-algorith rsa
uses the RSA algorithm for the key and is recommended formaximum compatibility. Other options includeECDSA
, which is lesscomputationally intensive on very low-end hardware (e.g. 50 MHz ARM) andDH
which has characteristics similar to RSA but is rarely used.-aes-256-cbc
is the cypher used to encrypt the bundle and causes the userto be prompted for a password. There are a number of available ciphers butAES-256-cbc is among the stronger options available and widely used too.-outform PEM
there are several output formats that you can use but PEM iswidely used by open source software and tends to be the best supported. Theformat is also nicely encoded so that you can debug with any text editor andhas the advantage of bundling the public and private key into a single filewhich makes them easier to move around. You can always output the public orprivate key from a PEM bundle that contains both.-pkey_opt …
can be specified multiple times and supplies options to thegeneration function. This can be specified multiple times to suplly severaloptionsrsa_keygen_bits:4096
sets the length of the keys produced. 1024 bits isgenerally considered the absolute minimum for secure communication todaythough there is some concern that they will be broken for well-fundedattackers in the near future so 2048 bits is recommended where possible.Longer keys provide greater security however there is diminishing returnsas key length increases. Also, increasing the key length also increasescomputational costs exponentially (by the cube of the change, so 2048 is8x more demanding than 1024-bit). You may want to use smaller keys forslower hardware or if you find yourself frequently reconnecting due to badconnections during a session for better performance.
-out yourname.pem
defines the output file for your bundle. You should storea copy of this certificate in~/.ssh
so that it can be used to authenticatessh sessions. The file must not be accessible to other users on the system soset the permissions accordingly. You should also store the file and thepassword somewhere safe (like in your password vault or on a USB drive in asafe deposit box).
When generating the key you will be prompted for a password. Make sure to use a verystrong, unique, random password for this file. You won't have to type it in regularlyso generate it with your password vault. In a pinch you can generate a random passwordusing OpenSSL via: openssl rand -base64 48
.
When the bundle has been generated, copy it to your~/.ssh
folder and change itspermissions accordingly:
I prefer to make the bundle read-only for my user so I never accidentally edit it orstrip the password. chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/yourname.pem
would also work if you don't mindit being editable by your user.
Extracting the public key
Generate Ssh Key Github
You'll want to be able to send the public key to other people and leave it on othercomputers without risking your private key. The easiest way to export your publickey is using the ssh-keygen method which prints it to standard out.
You can always redirect that to a file if you want to send it via email or copy itvia SFTP. Generally I prefer not to keep a copy of my public keys on disk so that I amjustified in always treating ~/.ssh
as a secret.
Configuring OpenSSH
Remember to either edit your ~/.ssh/config
to specify this bundle as the defaultidentify file by adding the line:
Alternatively you can specify it on a host-by-host basis by using ssh command-lineoptions: ssh -i ~/.ssh/yourname.pem example.com -l someuser
. When you areprompted for a password, remember that you should enter the one used when creatingthe bundle, not the log-in password for your computer or the remote system you areconnecting to.
Finally, you should consider adding the key to your Mac OX X keychain using:
This will store the password in the login Keychain which is unlocked automaticallywhenever you sign in. Storing your password this way means you won't have to re-typethe password you used when creating the bundle in order to use it.
Using ssh -i ~/.ssh/yourname.pem foo.example.com
will also add your key to Keychain.
Public Keys and Github.com
Mac Create Ssh Key 4096
It's a good idea to add your public key to github.com so that you can pull from privaterepositories and push changes to your public repositories. You can do this at:
Once you've uploaded your public key, other users can download it by going to
For example, my public key is located here: https://github.com/colinstein.keys
You may want to create different key-pairs for different repositories or organizationsand then use ~/.ssh/config
and local .gitconfig
files ot manage those relationships.
After generating keys in the above manner for each github account you can configuressh by editing ~/.ssh/config
and adding entries like the following for each account:
When cloing a repository you would then clone from the appropriate host:
You can also edit the existing git remote by editing the .gitconfig
insidethe checked out repository:
Git also provides a number of ways to configure SSH via git config
andgit remote add foo git@github.com-foo:somegithubuser/somerepo.git
. A fullrun through of those options is well outside the scope of this gist.