Generate RSA keys with SSH by using PuTTYgen

One effective way of securing SSH access to your cloud server is to usea public-private key pair. This means that a public key is placed onthe server and a private key is placed on your local workstation.Using a key pair makes it impossible for someone to log in by using justa password, as long as you set up SSH to deny password-basedauthentication.

Jun 22, 2012  SSH keys provide a more secure way of logging into a virtual private server with SSH than using a password alone. With SSH keys, users can log into a server without a password. This tutorial explains how to generate, use, and upload an SSH Key Pair.

This article provides steps for generating RSA keys by using PuTTYgen onWindows for secure SSH authentication with OpenSSH.

This section describes how to generate and manage keys for both symmetric and asymmetric algorithms. Symmetric Keys The symmetric encryption classes supplied by the.NET Framework require a key and a new initialization vector (IV) to encrypt and decrypt data. Before adding a new SSH key to the ssh-agent to manage your keys, you should have checked for existing SSH keys and generated a new SSH key. When adding your SSH key to the agent, use the default macOS ssh-add command, and not an application installed by macports. How can one securely generate an asymmetric key pair from a short passphrase? Ask Question Asked 8 years. Is there a way to derive a key pair from a password, like PBKDF-2 does for symmetric encryption? (RSA key generation can be viewed as a process that takes in a random bitstream and outputs, with probability approaching 1 over time. An RSA key pair includes a private and a public key. The RSA private key is used to generate digital signatures, and the RSA public key is used to verify digital signatures. The RSA public key is also used for key encryption of DES or AES DATA keys and the RSA private key for key recovery. There are several ways to generate RSA key pairs. Under Advanced Options on the Create Server page, click Manage SSH Keys. Select public key for the cloud server from the SSH Keys list and click Add Public Key. Enter the key name, select the region, and paste the entire public key into the Public Key field. Then click Add Public Key. Go back to the Create Server page, and confirm that your key is listed in the SSH Key list. Assign a public key.

Generate keys

In Windows, use PuTTYgen to generate your public and private keys.

  1. If needed, download PuTTYgen from the PuTTY download page.(PuTTYgen might have been installed previously with PuTTY or WinSCP.)
  2. Launch the program, and then click the Generate button.The program generates the keys for you.
  3. Enter a unique key passphrase in the Key passphrase andConfirm passphrase fields.For additional information about using passphrases,see Log in with a SSH Private Key on Windows.
  4. Save the public and private keys by clicking the Save public keyand Save private key buttons.
  5. From the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys filefield at the top of the window, copy all the text (starting with ssh-rsa)to your clipboard by pressing Ctrl-C.You need this key available on your clipboard to paste eitherinto the public key tool in the Control Panel or directly into theauthorized keys on your cloud server.

Use the key pair

You can use the RSA key pair in the following ways.

Specify your SSH key when creating a new cloud server

When you create a cloud server, you can assign a public key from the list of keys.If your key is not already in the list, you may add it, and then assign it.

Add a new public key to the list

  1. Under Advanced Options on the Create Server page, click Manage SSHKeys.
  2. Select public key for the cloud server from the SSH Keys listand click Add Public Key.
  3. Enter the key name, select the region, and paste the entire publickey into the Public Key field. Then click Add Public Key.
  4. Go back to the Create Server page, and confirm that your key is listedin the SSH Key list.

Assign a public key

  1. Under Advanced Options on the Create Server page, select the publickey you want to use from the SSH key drop-down menu.
  2. When you are done specifying the all the other details for the server,click Create Server.

Assign your SSH Key to an existing cloud server

To make use of your newly generated RSA key pair, you must tell PuTTY touse it when connecting to your cloud server.

  1. To edit the file (or create it), run the following command on the cloud server:

  2. Paste the text onto its own line in the file.

    You must have the key available in your clipboard to paste it. The key and itsassociated text (the ssh-rsa identified at the start and the comment at the end)must be on one line in the file. If the text is word-wrapped onto multiple linesan error might occur when connecting.

  3. If you created the authorized_keys file, change its permissionsafter you’re done editing it by running the following command:

  4. Open PuTTY, and go to the SSH > Auth section.

  5. Browse to the location of the key file, and load the private key.

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  6. Go to the Session page, and save the session. This saves the configurationso that PuTTY uses the key every time that you connect to your cloudserver.

After you save your session, your key is loaded automatically when youconnect to your server.

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  • October 2, 2015
  • Posted by: Syed Shujaat
  • Category: Cisco, Networking Solutions

Use this command to generate RSA key pairs for your Cisco device (such as a router). keys are generated in pairs–one public RSA key and one private RSA key.

If your router already has RSA keys when you issue this command, you will be warned and prompted to replace the existing keys with new keys.

NOTE: Before issuing this command, ensure that your router has a hostname and IP domain name configured (with the hostname and ipdomain-name commands).

You will be unable to complete the cryptokeygeneratersacommand without a hostname and IP domain name. (This situation is not true when you generate only a named key pair.)

Here are the steps to Enable SSH and Crypto Key setup : 2 config must requried for SSH

1 Setup Local VTY line User ID and password

Key generator windows 7 home basic. router (Config) # Line VTY 0 15

router (Config-line)# login local

router (Config-line)# Exit

!!! create local login ID/Pass

router (Config)# username [loginid] password [cisco]

router (Config)# username loginid1 password cisco1

2. router (Config)# ip domain-name example.com

router (Config)# crypto key generate rsa

how many bits in the modulus [512] :1024

router (Config)# ip ssh version2

router (Config)# CTRL Z

Generate Rsa Keypair


Note

Secure Shell (SSH) may generate an additional RSA key pair if you generate a key pair on a router having no RSA keys. The additional key pair is used only by SSH and will have a name such as {router_FQDN }.server.

For example, if a router name is “router1.cisco.com,” the key name is “router1.cisco.com.server.”

This command is not saved in the router configuration; however, the RSA keys generated by this command are saved in the private configuration in NVRAM (which is never displayed to the user or backed up to another device) the next time the configuration is written to NVRAM.

Modulus Length

When you generate RSA keys, you will be prompted to enter a modulus length. The longer the modulus, the stronger the security. However, a longer modules take longer to generate (see the table below for sample times) and takes longer to use.

The size of Key Modulus range from 360 to 2048. Choosing modulus greater than 512 will take longer time.

Router360 bits512 bits1024 bits2048 bits (maximum)
Cisco 250011 seconds20 seconds4 minutes, 38 secondsMore than 1 hour
Cisco 4700Less than 1 second1 second4 seconds50 seconds

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Cisco IOS software does not support a modulus greater than 4096 bits. A length of less than 512 bits is normally not recommended. In certain situations, the shorter modulus may not function properly with IKE, so we recommend using a minimum modulus of 2048 bits.

Syntax Description : Optional Strings to embed with SSH Crypto key

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general-keys(Optional) Specifies that a general-purpose key pair will be generated, which is the default.
usage-keys(Optional) Specifies that two RSA special-usage key pairs, one encryption pair and one signature pair, will be generated.
signature(Optional) Specifies that the RSA public key generated will be a signature special usage key.
encryption(Optional) Specifies that the RSA public key generated will be an encryption special usage key.
labelkey-label(Optional) Specifies the name that is used for an RSA key pair when they are being exported.If a key label is not specified, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the router is used.
exportable(Optional) Specifies that the RSA key pair can be exported to another Cisco device, such as a router.
modulusmodulus-size(Optional) Specifies the IP size of the key modulus.By default, the modulus of a certification authority (CA) key is 1024 bits. The recommended modulus for a CA key is 2048 bits. The range of a CA key modulus is from 350 to 4096 bits.
Note Effective with Cisco IOS XE Release 2.4 and Cisco IOS Release 15.1(1)T, the maximum key size was expanded to 4096 bits for private key operations. The maximum for private key operations prior to these releases was 2048 bits.
storagedevicename:(Optional) Specifies the key storage location. The name of the storage device is followed by a colon (:).
redundancy(Optional) Specifies that the key should be synchronized to the standby CA.
ondevicename:(Optional) Specifies that the RSA key pair will be created on the specified device, including a Universal Serial Bus (USB) token, local disk, or NVRAM. The name of the device is followed by a colon (:).Keys created on a USB token must be 2048 bits or less.

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CommandDescription
copyCopies any file from a source to a destination, use the copy command in privileged EXEC mode.
cryptokeystorageSets the default storage location for RSA key pairs.
debugcryptoengineDisplays debug messages about crypto engines.
hostnameSpecifies or modifies the hostname for the network server.
ipdomain-nameDefines a default domain name to complete unqualified hostnames (names without a dotted-decimal domain name).
showcryptokeymypubkeyrsaDisplays the RSA public keys of your router.
show crypto pki certificatesDisplays information about your PKI certificate, certification authority, and any registration authority certificates.

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