SSH public keys

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SSH Key Generation Overview

Generally it's bad to use unencrypted public keys for logging in to remote servers without a password. Use unencrypted keys in limited circumstances where you want a privileged account to have automatic access to a remote server. Examples of this are accounts for backup processes. On the other hand, if you are just looking to make life easier because you don't like typing passwords, then you should use ssh-agent.

The basic steps are:

  1. Create an RSA key-pair with an empty password (no encryption).
  2. Copy the public key to the remote server.
  3. Add the public key to the authorized_keys file on the remote server.
ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -N '' -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@remote.example.com:/tmp/id_rsa.pub
ssh user@remote.example.com "mkdir -p ~/.ssh;chmod 700 ~/.ssh;touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys;cat /tmp/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

If that seems like too much to remember then use the 'addremote' script below.

The 'addremote' Script

The following script will store your public key on a remote server. It uses your existing public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub if it exists; otherwise, it automatically creates a new, unencrypted key pair without a password. If you use an unencrypted key then you will be able to connect to the remote server without a password and without ssh-agent. If your private key is encrypted then you will need to enter your key's password or add your key to ssh-agent.

Save this as "addremote" and chmod 755. You will have to enter your remote account password twice -- once to copy the public key to the remote host and once to add the public key to the list of authorized_keys the remote host.

#!/bin/sh
REMOTE=$1
RSA_PRIV=~/.ssh/id_rsa
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Missing argument. Give username and remote host name in this format:"
    echo "    $0 username@remote.example.com"
    exit 1
fi
if [ -r $RSA_PRIV ]; then
    echo "Using existing key: $RSA_PRIV"
else
    echo "Creating new, unprotected key: $RSA_PRIV"
    ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -N '' -f $RSA_PRIV
fi
# Test if the private key is encrypted.
ssh-keygen -q -y -P '' -f $RSA_PRIV > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "WARNING! Private key is not password protected."
    echo "This is not secure if you don't know what you are doing."
fi
echo "Copying public key to remote host."
scp $RSA_PRIV.pub $REMOTE:/tmp/id_rsa.pub
echo "Adding public key to authorized_keys on remote hosts."
ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p ~/.ssh;chmod 700 ~/.ssh;touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys;cat /tmp/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Creating a encrypted key

Having an key pair with an unencrypted private key is dangerous. If anyone gets access to your private key this is as good as having your password. Note that the addremote script automatically creates an unencrypted key pair. It will warn you before installing an unencrypted key in on a remote server. It's usually best to create an encrypted key pair before using the addremote script.

ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Permissions problems

Ssh is very picky about permissions on the ~/.ssh directory and files. Sometimes you may do something to mess up these permissions. Run the following to fix most permissions problems. You may have to do this on both the remote host and local host.

 chmod 700 ~/.ssh
 chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
 chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub  
 chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
 chmod 644 ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Also no directory above ~/.ssh can have 'group' or 'other' write permissions.

SSH Agent

When you ssh to a remote server where you have previously added your public key to authorized_keys then the remote server will ask your ssh client to confirm your public key. If your private key is not encrypted then your ssh client will confirm the keys without your help. If your private key is encrypted then your ssh client will ask you for your password to decrypt your private key.

You can have ssh cache your private key password so that you only need to enter it once. To do this, ssh uses ssh-agent to cache passwords. The ssh-agent sits in the background and caches the password to your private keys. On most desktop distros such as Ubuntu an ssh-agent is started when you login. The ssh-agent doesn't do anything until you add a private key to the cache. This will add your private key to the ssh-agent cache.

    ssh-add

The agent will ask you for your password. Now the agent running in the background has your password and private key. When the ssh client later needs to confirm a public key it will first ask the ssh-agent if it has the key and password cached. If it does then the ssh client can confirm your keys without your help.

Debugging Your Agent

Most distros that feature a display manager such as xdm, gdm, or kdm will start an ssh-agent when you login. This is started as part of the xinit process. For example if you use KDE, then kdm is your display manager. Kdm will start X, which starts startkde, which starts ssh-agent.

root      4100  0.0  0.0   2688   640 ?        Ss   18:18   0:00 /usr/bin/kdm
root      4116  2.6  1.5  35236 23788 tty7     Ss+  18:18   0:16  \_ /usr/bin/X -br -nolisten tcp :0 vt7 -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-HgufQc
root      4130  0.0  0.0   3664  1388 ?        S    18:18   0:00  \_ -:0         
noah      4896  0.0  0.0   1660   504 ?        Ss   18:19   0:00      \_ /bin/sh /usr/bin/startkde
noah      5113  0.0  0.0   4480  1004 ?        Ss   18:19   0:00          \_ /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/startkde
noah      5168  0.0  0.0   1580   352 ?        S    18:19   0:00          \_ kwrapper ksmserver

You can check if an agent is running by using this command:

$ ps auxww | grep agent
noah      5113  0.0  0.0   4480  1004 ?        Ss   18:19   0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/startkde

If you don't have an agent running you can put one in your .xsession. Or you can run it manually at any time from the command line:

$ exec ssh-agent bash

Older notes

steps on local and remote servers
local server remote server
ssh-keygen -t rsa

Press enter when it asks you for a passphrase. This will set no passphrase. Or use

 ssh-keygen -t rsa -N 

to set an empty new password.

This generates the following files under ~/.ssh/

  • id_rsa -- Keep this secret!
  • id_rsa.pub -- Copy this to Remote
Copy id_rsa.pub to remote server:
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@remote.example.com:/tmp/id_rsa.pub

You will still need your password at this point.

Append /tmp/id_rsa.pub key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys:
cat /tmp/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

If you get an error saying "~/.ssh/authorized_keys: No such file or directory" it means that there is no .ssh directory for this user (this user has never used ssh before). Simply create an empty .ssh directory with 700 permissions:

mkdir ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
You should now be able to ssh to the remote server without a password:
ssh user@remote.example.com

Things that often cause trouble

These are usually only problems when working with older SSH servers.

  • The SSH2 protocol specifies a format for storing public keys. Some SSH servers (such as ssh.com's) require a public key in this format in order to accept authentication with the corresponding private key. Others, such as OpenSSH, use a different format. I don't know what to do about this.
  • When cutting and pasting the public key BEWARE that it should be a single line. If you cut and paste from a terminal window then it is likely that you will get newline characters added where your terminal wrapped the line. If you use vi then the line may wrap and APPEAR to be multiple lines, but it is really one single line. When you paste it to a new window it may look the same, but the copy will likely contain newline characters. This will not work.
  • Make sure you are using the correct version. Earlier versions of OpenSSH used two files, authorized_keys and authorized_keys2. Secure SSH uses something else with keys in an entirely different format.

Newbie SSH Notes

Create a key pair

This creates a Public Key and a Private Key. The Public Key is what you can give to other people. Key is a bit of a misnomer. It's really more of a Public Lock. You keep the key. You can give the lock to anyone and they can lock stuff with it, but they can't unlock it. They can give you the locked data and only you can unlock it with your Private Key.

You can further secure your Private Key by encrypting it so that you need a pass work to use it. This way even if someone gets a copy of your Private Key that won't be able to use it.

Copy Public Key to remote server

Start a Key Agent

Add your private key to the Agent