Ubuntu 16 Generate Ssh Key
SSH keys are a necessity for Python development when you are working withGit, connecting to remote servers and automating yourdeployments. Let's walk through how to generate SSHkey pairs, which contain both a public and a private key within a singlepair, on Ubuntu Linux.
How to add Public Key Authentication for Ubuntu 16.04 server. Here is steps how to do it. Generate SSH key pair on your local computer. Skip if you already have ssh key pair in your local computer. Paste your PUBLIC ssh key into. Apr 06, 2017 Create SSH-Keys for Ubuntu 16.04 Linux Basics Ubuntu. From creating the key pair to the automated integration of your keys on the gridscale servers. Creation of an SSH key pair. The first step is also the shortest. The pair can be created with a single command. Ssh-keygen -t rsa.
This article shows how to configure a SSH connection for authentication by using the public-key method. To do this, a key pair is created at the client, the public part of the key is transferred to the server, and afterwards the server is set up for key authentication. The user can log on to the server without a login password, only the password is required to protect the private key. Cookies are required to use this service. Please enable cookies in your browser. Oct 24, 2018 Ubuntu 18.04 Setup SSH Public Key Authentication. The procedure to set up secure ssh keys on Ubuntu 18.04: Create the key pair using ssh-keygen command. Copy and install the public key using ssh-copy-id command. Add yourself to sudo admin account on Ubuntu 18.04 server. Disable the password login for root account on Ubuntu 18.04.
Generating the Public and Private Keys
Open up a new terminal window in Ubuntu like we see in the followingscreenshot.
The ssh-keygen
command provides an interactive command line interface forgenerating both the public and private keys. Invoke ssh-keygen
with thefollowing -t
and -b
arguments to ensure we get a 4096 bit RSA key.Optionally, you can also specify your email address with -C
(otherwiseone will be generated off your current Linux account):
(Note: the -o
option was introduced in 2014; if this command fails for you, simply remove the -o
option)
The first prompt you will see asks where to save the key. However, there areactually two files that will be generated: the public key and the privatekey.
This prompt refers to the private key and whatever you enter will alsogenerate a second file for the public key that has the same name and .pub
appended.
If you already have a key, you should specify a new filename. I use manySSH keys so I typically name them 'test-deploy', 'prod-deploy', 'ci-server'along with a unique project name. Naming is one of those hard computerscience problems, so take some time to come up with a system that works foryou and the development team you work with!
Next you will see a prompt for an optional passphrase:
Whether or not you want a passphrase depends on how you will use the key.The system will ask you for the passphrase whenever you use the SSH keyso it is more secure.However, if you are automating deployments with acontinuous integration server likeJenkins then you will not want a passphrase.
Be aware that it is impossible to recover a passphrase if it is lost. Keepthat passphrase safe and secure because otherwise a completely new key wouldhave to be generated.
Enter the passphrase (or just press enter to not have a passphrase) twice.You'll see some output like the following:
Your SSH key is now generated and ready to use!
What now?
Now that you have your public and private keys, I recommend settingup a Python development environment withone of the following tutorials so you can start coding:
Additional ssh-keygen
command resources:
Questions? Contact me via Twitter@fullstackpythonor @mattmakai. I'm also on GitHub withthe username mattmakai.
See something wrong in this post? Forkthis page's source on GitHuband submit a pull request.
Neverwinter nights 2 cd key generator serial. This article shows how to configure a SSH connection for authentication by using the public-key method. To do this, a key pair is created at the client, the public part of the key is transferred to the server, and afterwards the server is set up for key authentication. The user can log on to the server without a login password, only the password is required to protect the private key.The operating systems used in this article are on the one hand a Ubuntu 12.10 at the client side and a Ubuntu 12.04 at the server side.This guide was also validated working with Ubuntu 16.04 as client and server.
- 1On the client
- 2On the server
- 3Notes for other distributions
On the client
The first configuration steps take place at the client side.
Home folder rights
By default, Ubuntu sets the user home directory permissions to 755. Nevertheless, for security reasons, check whether the permissions are set to 755 on your system and change them if necessary:
:~$ sudo chmod 755 /home/<USER>
Generate keypair
In the first step, a key pair with ssh-keygen
is created at the client. If you use Ubuntu 18.04 on the server, the package openssh-server will be installed in the version 7.6.[1] Since this version, RSA bit lengths smaller than 1024 bits are no longer accepted.[2] In this example, a bit length of 4096 bits is selected for the RSA keys:
Please note: It is recommended to protect the key with a passphrase for security reasons. This means that the key is not available in plain text, but is AES-CBC encrypted:
If the private key is stolen by an attacker, he has to find out the password of the key in order to access the server with the key. If the key is available in plain text, an attacker can use this stolen key to directly access the server.
Transfer the public key to the server
To transfer the public key to the server, the first step is to use the SSH connection via password authentication yet. The ssh-copy-id
tool copies the corresponding identity file to the server:
The above-mentioned procedure has created the following entry in the /home/tktest/.ssh/authorized_keys
on the server:
Test the key authentication
Now that the public key is transferred to the server, the connection can be tested from the client. In this case, it is important that the server does not ask for the user password, but of course the passphrase of the protected key is required!
The following dialog box appears for GUI-based systems:
After entering the password that protected the key when it was created, you are authenticated on the system:
On the server
This paragraph shows some additional configuration steps on the server side to harden the public-key authentication.
sshd configuration
In Ubuntu, it is generally sufficient to carry out the above-mentioned procedure for public-key authentication. In some situations it makes sense to deactivate password authentication completely.
Please note: After changing the following setting, it is no longer possible to log in with a password via ssh: PasswordAuthentication no
.
From the client, the connection is tested again:
Ssh Keygen Ubuntu 16.04
In the above example, the dialog for entering the key password has been aborted. Since the log-on via password was deactivated, it was not possible to log-on to the system.
Forbid password authentication for just one user
Another way in which password authentication is not completely deactivated is to disable password authentication for specific users. This allows a user who does not have sudo privileges to log on to the server, for example. To gain root privileges, at least one additional password must be found for a user with sudo privileges. Plus, there's a way to completely exclude users from ssh:
This example:
- Prohibits SSH access for the user
test
- Deactivates password authentication for the user
tktest
- Password authentication is retained for all other users
Notes for other distributions
For other Linux distributions, the required steps may differ slightly. We would be happy to supplement our experiences with other distributions, which you are welcome to share with us via the feedback function.
Red Hat
One reader told us that the procedure described Red Hat does not work 1:1 in Red Hat. In the home directory of the user, the write permission was set for the group. After a chmod 755
it worked to connect via ssh to the server without asking for a password.
References
- ↑Package: openssh-server (1:7.6p1-4) (packages.ubuntu.com)
- ↑OpenSSH 7.6 Release Notes (openssh.com)