1. Ssh Key Generation For Windows 8
2. Ssh Key Generation Windows Cmd
3. Ssh Key For Windows
4. Create Ssh Key On Windows

Apr 19, 2019 In order to properly configure a Windows client for authenticating via SSH keys, the public key (.PUB) file must be transferred to the client device's.ssh directory and stored in the authorized.

This article describes ways to generate and use secure shell (SSH) keys on a Windows computer to create and connect to a Linux virtual machine (VM) in Azure. To use SSH keys from a Linux or macOS client, see the quick or detailed guidance.

• How to Generate an SSH key in Windows 10 As you may already know, Windows 10 includes built-in SSH software - both a client and a server! This feature is available in the OS starting in version 1803.
• Sep 26, 2019 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.
• Generating an SSH Key on Windows - using PuTTY Gen: Download and install PuTTY. When the installation is complete, select and open the PuTTY Gen application. Set the Parameters by selecting the SSH-2 RSA radio button, and enter 2048 for the number of bits. Click Generate and the Key generation.

Overview of SSH and keys

SSH is an encrypted connection protocol that allows secure sign-ins over unsecured connections. SSH is the default connection protocol for Linux VMs hosted in Azure. Although SSH itself provides an encrypted connection, using passwords with SSH connections still leaves the VM vulnerable to brute-force attacks or guessing of passwords. A more secure and preferred method of connecting to a VM using SSH is by using a public-private key pair, also known as SSH keys.

• The public key is placed on your Linux VM, or any other service that you wish to use with public-key cryptography.

• The private key remains on your local system. Protect this private key. Do not share it.

When you use an SSH client to connect to your Linux VM (which has the public key), the remote VM tests the client to make sure it possesses the private key. If the client has the private key, it's granted access to the VM. Windows 10 microsoft word product key generator.

Depending on your organization's security policies, you can reuse a single public-private key pair to access multiple Azure VMs and services. You do not need a separate pair of keys for each VM or service you wish to access.

Your public key can be shared with anyone, but only you (or your local security infrastructure) should possess your private key.

Supported SSH key formats

Azure currently supports SSH protocol 2 (SSH-2) RSA public-private key pairs with a minimum length of 2048 bits. Other key formats such as ED25519 and ECDSA are not supported.

Windows packages and SSH clients

You connect to and manage Linux VMs in Azure using an SSH client. Computers running Linux or macOS usually have a suite of SSH commands to generate and manage SSH keys and to make SSH connections.

Windows computers do not always have comparable SSH commands installed. Recent versions of Windows 10 provide OpenSSH client commands to create and manage SSH keys and make SSH connections from a command prompt. Recent Windows 10 versions also include the Windows Subsystem for Linux to run and access utilities such as an SSH client natively within a Bash shell.

Other common Windows SSH clients you can install locally are included in the following packages:

You can also use the SSH utilities available in Bash in the Azure Cloud Shell.

• Access Cloud Shell in your web browser at https://shell.azure.com or in the Azure portal.
• Access Cloud Shell as a terminal from within Visual Studio Code by installing the Azure Account extension.

Create an SSH key pair

The following sections describe two options to create an SSH key pair on Windows. You can use a shell command (ssh-keygen) or a GUI tool (PuTTYgen). Also note, when using Powershell to create a key, upload the public key as ssh.com(SECSH) format. When using CLI, convert the key into OpenSSH format prior to uploading.

Create SSH keys with ssh-keygen

If you run a command shell on Windows that supports SSH client tools (or you use Azure Cloud Shell), create an SSH key pair using the ssh-keygen command. Type the following command, and answer the prompts. If an SSH key pair exists in the chosen location, those files are overwritten.

For more background and information, see the quick or detailed steps to create SSH keys using ssh-keygen.

Create SSH keys with PuTTYgen

If you prefer to use a GUI-based tool to create SSH keys, you can use the PuTTYgen key generator, included with the PuTTY download package.

To create an SSH RSA key pair with PuTTYgen:

1. Start PuTTYgen.

2. Click Generate. By default PuTTYgen generates a 2048-bit SSH-2 RSA key.

3. Move the mouse around in the blank area to provide randomness for the key.

4. After the public key is generated, optionally enter and confirm a passphrase. You will be prompted for the passphrase when you authenticate to the VM with your private SSH key. Without a passphrase, if someone obtains your private key, they can sign in to any VM or service that uses that key. We recommend you create a passphrase. However, if you forget the passphrase, there is no way to recover it.

5. The public key is displayed at the top of the window. You can copy this entire public key and then paste it into the Azure portal or an Azure Resource Manager template when you create a Linux VM. You can also select Save public key to save a copy to your computer:

6. Optionally, to save the private key in PuTTy private key format (.ppk file), select Save private key. You will need the .ppk file later to use PuTTY to make an SSH connection to the VM.

   If you want to save the private key in the OpenSSH format, the private key format used by many SSH clients, select Conversions > Export OpenSSH key.

Provide an SSH public key when deploying a VM

To create a Linux VM that uses SSH keys for authentication, provide your SSH public key when creating the VM using the Azure portal or other methods.

The following example shows how you would copy and paste this public key into the Azure portal when you create a Linux VM. The public key is typically then stored in the ~/.ssh/authorized_key directory on your new VM.

Connect to your VM

One way to make an SSH connection to your Linux VM from Windows is to use an SSH client. This is the preferred method if you have an SSH client installed on your Windows system, or if you use the SSH tools in Bash in Azure Cloud Shell. If you prefer a GUI-based tool, you can connect with PuTTY.

Use an SSH client

With the public key deployed on your Azure VM, and the private key on your local system, SSH to your VM using the IP address or DNS name of your VM. Replace azureuser and myvm.westus.cloudapp.azure.com in the following command with the administrator user name and the fully qualified domain name (or IP address):

If you configured a passphrase when you created your key pair, enter the passphrase when prompted during the sign-in process.

If the VM is using the just-in-time access policy, you need to request access before you can connect to the VM. For more information about the just-in-time policy, see Manage virtual machine access using the just in time policy.

Connect with PuTTY

If you installed the PuTTY download package and previously generated a PuTTY private key (.ppk) file, you can connect to a Linux VM with PuTTY.

1. Start PuTTy.

2. Fill in the host name or IP address of your VM from the Azure portal:

3. Select the Connection > SSH > Auth category. Browse to and select your PuTTY private key (.ppk file):

4. Click Open to connect to your VM.

Next steps

• For detailed steps, options, and advanced examples of working with SSH keys, see Detailed steps to create SSH key pairs.

• You can also use PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell to generate SSH keys and make SSH connections to Linux VMs. See the PowerShell quickstart.

• If you have difficulty using SSH to connect to your Linux VMs, see Troubleshoot SSH connections to an Azure Linux VM.

An SSH key set-up can be divided into 4 steps:

• Prerequisite software
• Generating your keys
• Enabling Key Access to HPG
• Using Pageant to create persistent key sessions

Each of these are handled in a slightly different ways on each operating system. Separate instructions for Microsoft Windows OS variants are listed below.

Prerequisite software

Here is a list of the software you will need installed on your local machine to start using key-based authentication.

• An SSH client (PuTTY, MobaXterm etc)
• The Windows Putty Agent (pagent.exe)
• The command line interface (plink.exe)

You can find many of these to download at the putty site:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

You can also find the MobaXterm client here:
http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

Most of these software applications are contained in the Windows installer (.msi) for PuTTY and that is the recommended approach. If you do not have administrative authority on your PC you can also download a zip file containing all the needed programs. These will need to be extracted into a folder of your choosing. MobaXterm also contains a similar key generator and can be used in place of PuTTYgen if it is already installed.

Generating your keys

Now we can generate your key pair. Your key pair consists of two keys, one public and one private. The public key is the one that you will upload to HPG. The private key must be kept secure. Once enabled, this key will allow you to login to HPG directly, so it needs to be stored in a safe place. Treat it as you would treat your HiPerGator or GatorLink password and remember the consequences of facilitating unauthorized access to University systems.

Ssh Key Generation For Windows 8

To generate your key pair, start the PuTTYgen program. Please see the figure below for an example window. If you are using MobaXterm, then select “Tools' then “MobaKeyGen'.

Please make sure to select and enter the following options in the lower “Parameters' box: SSH-2 RSA (simply RSA in MobaKeyGen) and 4096 for the number of bits in a generated key.

Then click “Generate' to create your key pair. You will be asked to move the mouse around in a random pattern over the window to generate randomness for the key. This may take a bit of time depending on the speed of your computer. Once completed, the public key will be displayed in the “Key' box. The figure below shows what the window looks like after key generation.

Feel free to edit the “Key Comment' field to give your key a nickname. Then protect your private key with a passphrase. PLEASE DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!

• Please protect your private key with a strong passphrase. This is what protects your key from other customers and intruders if they ever manage to compromise your system. The figure below shows what the window should look like with the information filled out.

Ssh Key Generation Windows Cmd

Please choose a passphrase that is easy for you to remember, but hard for another person to guess. If you need resources to help with generating passphrases, please see: http://identity.it.ufl.edu/process/gatorlink/password-tips/

Once your passphrase is set, you can use the “Save private key' and “Save public key' buttons to save your keys. Please make sure to save these in a safe place. The private key should be a “.ppk' file and the public key can be a regular text file “.txt'.

By default, the PuTTYgen program converts the key for pasting into an OpenSSH file in the “Key' area of the screen. This is the content you should copy to add to HPG. If you ever need to copy this content again, just click the “Load' button and select your private key file.

Enabling Key Access to HPG

In order to enable key-based login to HPG, you will need to copy the public key content from the PuTTYgen window into your authorized_keys file on HPG. To do this you will need to login to HPG using your account. You can use any SSH client for this step, but for this tutorial, we will be using MobaXterm. Go ahead and start your SSH client and log in to hpg.rc.ufl.edu with your username and password. You should see a command prompt in your home directory. To do this in MobaXterm, simply start the application, click “Start local terminal', and type the following (with your GatorLink username in place of $GATORLINK) followed by the enter key as shown in the figure below:
ssh $GATORLINK@hpg.rc.ufl.edu

MobaXterm connection window with HPG2 login command

The next figure shows the login prompt after authentication:

Now you can open and edit your authorized_keys file. To do this, type the following into the command prompt and press enter:
nano $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys

You will now be editing your authorized_keys file. There will likely already be entries for keys that were generated for your account automatically. Please select copy the data from the PuTTYgen window labeled 'key' to your clipboard. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the bottom of the list in the authorized_keys file and paste the data from the PuTTYgen window into this file. All the pasted content should be on one line. The figure below shows the window after pasting the additional line of information.

Please use right click to copy and paste since that will produce the best results. After you have pasted the information in the file, press the CTRL and o keys at the same time followed by Enter to write out the file. Then press the CTRL and x keys at the same time to exit the editor.
Congratulations your key is now authorized to login to your account on HPG.

Using Pageant to create persistent key sessions

In order to take the most advantage of key-based authentication, the most common use is a persistent password-less connection.

If you installed the PuTTY system via the msi, then all the associations are typically set up for you. Simply double click your private key file and enter your key password to load your key into the agent.

Once loaded, you can double click the icon in the lower right tray and it will show you the fingerprints of the keys you have loaded.

Ssh Key For Windows

This will allow PuTTY to connect without having to enter your password.

If you are using MobaXterm you can enable the use of the Pageant to pick up your key. The setting can be found under “Settings' then “SSH'. The setting needed is the “Use external Pageant'. The figure below shows this in the settings menu.

When you are done with your session, please remember to log out or remove the key from Pageant. This can be done easily by double clicking the Pageant tray icon, click the key you want to remove and then click “Remove Key'.

Create Ssh Key On Windows