Jun 23, 2017 I am following the tutorial to add an SSL certificate to the Ubuntu 16.04 droplet, but in the instructions it is recommended this is not done through the root user, but rather a super user. As a result, I created a separate user and added it to a super user group, but I’m getting hung up on the step that adds ssh keys to this user.
We’ll show you how to set up SSH keys on Ubuntu 16.04. SSH or Secure SHELL is the most popular and trusted UNIX-based cryptographic network protocol. It can be used for a secure data communication, remote server logins, remote command execution, and many other secure network services between two networked servers. Normally, password authentication is used to connect to a remote server via SSH but in this tutorial we will show you how to login to your Ubuntu 16.04 VPS using SSH keys. We will generate a key pair (private and public key), place the private key on your server and then use your locally stored private key to gain access to your server. This method provides a more secure way of connecting to your server, instead of just using a password.
During the course of this tutorial, we will also explain how to generate an SSH key pair on both Linux and a Windows operating system.
- Nov 18, 2017 85 videos Play all Linux Command Line Tutorial For Beginners Bash Terminal Linux Terminal ProgrammingKnowledge Installation et configuration d'un serveur SSH sous Linux Ubuntu 17.04 - Duration.
- Dec 07, 2019 SSH works using a key pair; the public key and the private key. The private key is kept on the computer you log in from, while the public key is stored in the.ssh/authorizedkeys file on all the computers you want to log into. The public key stored on the server you wish to unlock and by matching the private pair, you are able to unlock the system.
1. Generating SSH keys on Ubuntu 16.04
To generate the SSH key pair, simply run the following command from the terminal on your local Ubuntu 16.04 based computer:
You can just press Enter to leave the default values to all the questions. Optionally, you can also set a passphrase to add an extra layer of security, or just press Enter again if you don’t want to.
This will create a 2048 bit private and public key (id_rsa and id_rsa.pub) in the /root/.ssh/ directory on your local system.
Upload the Public Key to the Ubuntu 16.04 server with ssh-copy-id
The next step requires that you upload the generated public key to your remote Ubuntu server. There is more than one method to do this.
The most simple way is to use the ssh-copy-id utility. In order for this to work, you should be able to connect to your server via SSH using password authentication.
You can then use the following command to upload the public key to your remote server: Generate aes 256 bit key.
You will be asked to enter your user password (in our example that would be the root password) and press Enter. After the connection has been established, the contents of the id_rsa.pub (the public key) will be copied into the /root/ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote server.
The following output should be displayed: Norton product key generator free download.
From now on, you should now be able to authenticate to your Ubuntu server using your SSH keys.
Upload the Public Key to the Ubuntu server manually
If the ssh-copy-id tool is not available on your system, you can log in to your server and do this manually.
First, connect yo your server via SSH with:
Once connected, you will need to create a new .ssh directory on the remote server with the following command:
Next, you need to copy the public key into the authorized_keys file on the remote server. You can create and then add the contents of the public key using the nano text editor:
You will also need to open the SSH configuration file:
and make sure the following lines exist and are not commented:
Save the changes and restart the SSH service:
That’s it. From now on, you will be using the SSH keys every time you try to connect to your remote server.
2. Generating SSH keys on Windows based system with PuTTY and PuTTYGen
If you are using Windows operating system on your local machine, then you will need PuTTY for connecting to your server via SSH and PuTTYgen to generate your SSH keys. You can download them over here (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html).
To generate the SSH keys, go ahead and start PuTTYGen on your computer.
At the bottom, you can choose the number of bits for your generated key. Type in 4096 and then click on Generate. Start moving your mouse around over the blank area on the PuTTYgen screen in order to generate a unique key based on your mouse movement input.
When the green progress bar fills in, the public key will be generated. You can copy they key and save it inside a .txt file on your computer.
To save the private key, you will need to click on the Save private key button. Additionally, you can also set a Key Passphrase for your private key.
Now you can open PuTTY and to assign the location of your private key, click on SSH under the Connection menu and then click on Auth. Click on the browse button and enter the location of your saved private key file.
Next, we need to upload the public key to your server. To do this, click on Session, enter your IP address and the SSH port number of your server, select SSH for Connection type and click on Open.
You will be asked for your user name and password. You can log in as user root, using your root password.
Once logged in to your server, first create the .ssh directory:
Then create the authorized_keys file inside the .ssh directory and add the contents of your public key inside this file:
You can also open the SSH configuration file on your server with:
and make sure that the following lines exist and are not commented:
If any changes have been made, dont forget to restart the sshd service with:
With this, the SSH keys has been succesfully configurad.You can now disconnect from your server and exit PuTTY. The next time your try to connect to your server, PuTTY will use the public key that you have set up in order to establish the connection.
3. Disable Password Authentication
![Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu 16.04 Terminal Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu 16.04 Terminal](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126139535/432606229.png)
Once you have successfuly configured the SSH keys using either of the above methods and you made sure that you can login to your server using SSH key based authentication, you can disable password based authentication to your server. This will add additional layer of security and will prevent all brute force attacks towards your server.
To disable the password-based authentication, open the SSH configuration file with:
And uncomment the following line and set its value to “no”:
Restart the sshd service with:
Of course, you don’t have to set up the SSH key on your Ubuntu 16.04 VPS, if you use one of our Ubuntu Hosting services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to set up the SSH keys for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.
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Introduction
Establishing an SSH (Secure Shell) connection is essential to log in and effectively manage a remote server. Encrypted keys are a set of access credentials used to establish a secure connection.
This guide will walk you how to generate SSH keys on Ubuntu 18.04. We will also cover setting up SSH key-based authentication to connect to a remote server without requiring a password.
- A server running Ubuntu 18.04
- A user account with sudo privileges
- Access to a terminal window / command line (Ctrl-Alt-T)
If you are already running an Ubuntu 18.04 server, you can skip this step. If you are configuring your server for the first time, you may not have SSH installed.
1. Start by installing the tasksel package:
The system will first ask for confirmation before proceeding:
2. Next, use tasksel to install the ssh-server:
3. Load the SSH server service, and set it to launch at boot:
![Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu 16.04 Terminal Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu 16.04 Terminal](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126139535/402130399.png)
On your client system – the one you’re using to connect to the server – you need to create a pair of key codes.
To generate a pair of SSH key codes, enter the commands:
This will create a hidden directory to store your SSH keys, and modify the permissions for that directory. The ssh-keygen command creates a 2048-bit RSA key pair.
For extra security, use RSA4096:
If you’ve already generated a key pair, this will prompt to overwrite them, and those old keys will not work anymore.
The system will ask you to create a passphrase as an added layer of security. Input a memorable passphrase, and press Enter.
This process creates two keys. One is a public key, which you can hand out to anyone – in this case, you’ll save it to the server. The other one is a private key, which you will need to keep secure. The secure private key ensures that you are the only person who can encrypt the data that is decrypted by the public key.
Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu 16.04 Terminal 4
Step 2- Copy Public Key to the Ubuntu Server
First, get the IP address of the Ubuntu server you want to connect to.
In a terminal window, enter:
The system’s IP address is listed in the second entry:
On the client system, use the ssh-copy-id command to copy the identity information to the Ubuntu server:
Replace server_IP with the actual IP address of your server.
If this is the first time you’re connecting to the server, you may see a message that the authenticity of the host cannot be established:
Type yes and press Enter.
The system will check your client system for the id_rsa.pub key that was previously generated. Then it will prompt you to enter the password for the server user account. Type it in (the system won’t display the password), and press Enter.
The system will copy the contents of the ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub from the client system into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys directory of the server system.
The system should display:
If your system does not have the ssh-copy-id command, you can copy the key manually over the SSH. Microsoft office 2007 product key generator download.
Use the following command:
To log in to a remote server, input the command:
The system should not ask for a password as it is negotiating a secure connection using the SSH keys. If you used a security passphrase, you would be prompted to enter it. After you do so, you are logged in.
If this is the first time you’ve logged into the server, you may see a message similar to the one in part two. It will ask if you are sure you want to connect – type yes and press Enter.
Step 4- Disable Password Authentication
https://valeww.weebly.com/generate-rsa-key-cisco-nexus.html. This step creates an added layer of security. If you’re the only person logging into the server, you can disable the password. The server will only accept a login with your private key to match the stored public key.
Edit the sshd_config file:
Search the file and find the PasswordAuthentication option.
Edit the file and change the value to no:
Generate Ssh Key Ubuntu 16.04 Terminal 2
Save the file and exit, then restart the SSH service:
Verify that SSH is still working, before ending the session:
If everything works, you can close out and resume work normally.
By following the instructions in this tutorial, you have setup SSH-key-based authentication on an Ubuntu 18.04 server.
The connection is now highly secure as it uses a set of unique, encrypted SSH keys.
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