Generating SSH Keys Manually for Linux, Windows and macOS

SSH keys are an essential part of secure remote access to servers and other machines. They allow you to authenticate yourself without having to enter your password each time you connect. In this guide, we will walk you through the process of generating SSH keys manually for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you will need to have a terminal emulator installed on your computer. On Linux and macOS, the terminal is usually included with the operating system. On Windows, you can download and install a terminal emulator such as PuTTY or Git Bash.

Generating SSH Keys on Linux

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Generate an SSH key pair using the ssh-keygen command. You will be prompted to enter a file location to save the keys and a passphrase to protect the private key.

ssh-keygen

3. Enter a strong passphrase and press Enter twice. The passphrase will be used to encrypt the private key, so make sure it is something you can remember but is also difficult to guess.

4. The SSH key pair will be generated and saved to the specified location. The public key will be saved to a file with the .pub extension, and the private key will be saved to a file without the .pub extension.

Generating SSH Keys on Windows

1. Open a terminal window. You can do this by opening PuTTY or Git Bash.

2. Generate an SSH key pair using the ssh-keygen command. You will be prompted to enter a file location to save the keys and a passphrase to protect the private key.

ssh-keygen

3. Enter a strong passphrase and press Enter twice. The passphrase will be used to encrypt the private key, so make sure it is something you can remember but is also difficult to guess.

4. The SSH key pair will be generated and saved to the specified location. The public key will be saved to a file with the .pub extension, and the private key will be saved to a file without the .pub extension.

Generating SSH Keys on macOS

1. Open a terminal window. You can do this by opening the Terminal application.

2. Generate an SSH key pair using the ssh-keygen command. You will be prompted to enter a file location to save the keys and a passphrase to protect the private key.

ssh-keygen

3. Enter a strong passphrase and press Enter twice. The passphrase will be used to encrypt the private key, so make sure it is something you can remember but is also difficult to guess.

4. The SSH key pair will be generated and saved to the specified location. The public key will be saved to a file with the .pub extension, and the private key will be saved to a file without the .pub extension.

Copying the Public Key

Once you have generated your SSH key pair, you will need to copy the public key to the server or other machines that you want to connect to. The public key is typically found in a file with the .pub extension.

1. Open the public key file in a text editor.

2. Copy the entire contents of the file, including the ssh-rsa or ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 header.

3. Paste the public key into the appropriate location on the server or other machines that you want to connect to. The specific location will vary depending on the operating system and SSH server software.

Using the Private Key

When you connect to a server or other machine using SSH, you will be prompted to enter the passphrase for your private key. Once you enter the correct passphrase, you will be able to connect to the machine without having to enter your password.

Additional Notes

• You can generate multiple SSH key pairs for different purposes. For example, you might want to have one key pair for personal use and another key pair for work use.

• You can change the passphrase for an existing SSH key pair using the ssh-keygen command with the -p option.

• You can disable SSH password authentication on the server or other machines that you want to connect to. This will force users to use SSH keys instead of passwords to authenticate.

We hope this guide has helped you learn how to generate SSH keys manually for Linux, Windows, and macOS. SSH keys are an essential part of secure remote access, so we encourage you to use them whenever possible.