How to Generate a Public/Private KeyPair for Use With Solaris Secure Shell
- Ssh-keygen defaults to RSA therefore there is no need to specify it with the -t option. It provides the best compatibility of all algorithms but requires the key size to be larger to provide sufficient security. Minimum key size is 1024 bits, default is 3072 (see ssh-keygen(1)) and maximum is 16384. If you wish to generate a stronger RSA key pair (e.g. To guard against cutting-edge.
- Oct 05, 2007 Generating public keys for authentication is the basic and most often used feature of ssh-keygen. Ssh-keygen can generate both RSA and DSA keys. RSA keys have a minimum key length of 768 bits and the default length is 2048.
Users must generate a public/private key pair when their site implementshost-based authentication or user public-key authentication. For additionaloptions, see the ssh-keygen(1) manpage.
Before You Begin
Determine from your system administrator if host-based authenticationis configured.
When I started dealing with.nix servers, openssh servers came with dsa as well as rsa host keys, with openssh clients preferring the rsa key. These days openssh servers have dsa, rsa as well as ecdsa host keys, with openssh clients preferring the ecdsa host key.
- Start the key generation program.where -t is the type of algorithm, one of rsa, dsa, or rsa1.
- Specify the path to the file that will hold the key.Bydefault, the file name id_rsa, which represents an RSAv2 key, appears in parentheses. You can select this file by pressing the Return key. Or, you can type an alternative file name.The file name of the public key is created automatically by appendingthe string .pub to the name of the private key file.
- Type a passphrase for using your key.This passphraseis used for encrypting your private key. A null entry is stronglydiscouraged. Note that the passphrase is not displayed when youtype it in.
- Retype the passphrase to confirm it.
- Check the results.Check that the path to the keyfile is correct.At this point, you have created a public/private key pair.
- Choose the appropriate option:
- If your administrator has configuredhost-based authentication, you might need to copy the local host's publickey to the remote host.You can now log in to the remote host.For details, see How to Log In to a Remote Host With Solaris Secure Shell.
- Type the command on one line with no backslash.
- When you are prompted, supply your login password.
- If your site uses user authentication with public keys, populateyour authorized_keys file on the remote host.
- Copy your public key to the remote host.Type thecommand on one line with no backslash.
- When you are prompted, supply your login password.Whenthe file is copied, the message “Key copied” is displayed.
- (Optional) Reduce the prompting for passphrases.For a procedure, see How to Reduce Password Prompts in Solaris Secure Shell. For more information, see the ssh-agent(1) and ssh-add(1) man pages.
Example 19–2 Establishing a v1 RSA Key for a User
In the following example, the user cancontact hosts that run v1 of the Solaris Secure Shell protocol. To be authenticated by v1hosts, the user creates a v1 key, then copies the public key portion to theremote host.