Generate Ssh Key Pair Mac

13.12.2020 admin

This guide goes through setting up SSH keys on macOS Mojave 10.14 back to Mac OSX 10.11 and also a secure password-less SSH connection between a local macOS workstation and a remote server also running a Linux variant operating system.

Generate Ssh Key Pair Mac And Paste
Generate Ssh Key Pair Mac Keyboard
Generate Ssh Key Pair Mac Keyboard

To generate a key pair on a Mac or Linux machine,in the terminal I'll write ssh-keygen -t rsato specify the RSA encryption algorithm type.RSA is a widely used encryption algorithm.This will start up an interactive seriesof prompts asking you where you want to store the key.In this case, I'll leave it as the default.You could rename the key if youanticipate having many. Run it on your local computer to generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair, which is fine for most uses. The utility prompts you to select a location for the keys. By default, the keys are stored in the /.ssh directory with the filenames idrsa for the private key and idrsa.pub for the public key. PuTTYgen is a key generator tool for creating pairs of public and private SSH keys. It is one of the components of the open-source networking client PuTTY. Although originally written for Microsoft Windows operating system, it is now officially available for multiple operating systems including macOS, Linux. If you can, disable password logins in your “sshdconfig” file (on the server) and use keys instead. In case you travel and can’t carry your laptop with you, just keep your private key on a USB stick and attach it to your physical keychain. Your server will be much safer this way. Generate Public/Private SSH Key Pair.

The process requires generating a public and private key on the local computer and then adding the public key to the remote servers authorised list. What is great about this is that it allows a password prompt free session, handy for a lot of uses.

First thing that you need to do on your macOS machine is to create a directory that will store your SSH keys. Then you will generate a public and private key for your account, launch the Terminal and punch in some commands:

Create a .ssh Directory

Change to the home directory

Create a SSH directory name .ssh and move into it

Which key will generate the registered r symbol. Make sure that the file permissions are set to read/write/execute only for the user

Create your private and public key, the blank quotes at the end of the command gives the private key no password, so allowing for passwordless logins!

Change into the .ssh directory and list the contents of that .ssh directory

Thats your SSH keys created, the private key is the id_rsa and the public one is the id_rsa.pub, don’t give out the private one always keep that one only on your local machine.

Sharing the Public Key

Create an authorized_keys in the .ssh directory of the remote computer that you want to connect to.

You can create automatic logins by adding the contents of your public key to the authorized_keys file on the remote device.

To see and copy your public key use the cat command and copy the contents:

On the remote computer if needed, change the permssions on the authorized_keys file to write to add the public key, on a new line paste in your public key, and change permissions back to read only after for security. Aes key generation in python.

Allow write on authorised_keys

Paste the entire id_rsa.pub content with vi or nano into the authorized_keys file, if using nano use the -w flag to not use incorrect line breaks.

If the remote host does not have an “authorized_keys” file simply create one and after the public key is pasted in don’t forget to takeaway write permissions.

Going Both Ways

So now when you connect via SSH no password is prompted as the remote computer has your public key which is only decrypted by your private key held in your local .ssh/ directory. If you want the communications to be bilateral then repeat the process in the opposite order between the two.

Now the two computers can securely connect with no password prompting, making it ideal to script between the two for file copies or back ups.

Doing it Quicker

Now instead of typing in

Make an alias in your bash shell you could alias it to

Reload the the shell

Then all you have to type in is the alias

You generate an SSH key through Mac OS X by using the Terminal application. Once you upload a valid public SSH key,Gerrit can authenticate you based on this key.

An SSH key consists of a pair of files. One is the private key, which you should never give to anyone. No one will everask you for it and if so, simply ignore them - they are trying to steal it.The other is the public key. When you generate your keys, you will use ssh-keygen to store the keys in a safe locationso you can authenticate with Gerrit.

To generate SSH keys in Mac OS X, follow these steps:

Enter the following command in the Terminal window:
This starts the key generation process. When you execute this command, the ssh-keygen utility prompts you to indicate where to store the key.
Press the ENTER key to accept the default location. The ssh-keygen utility prompts you for a passphrase.
Type in a passphrase. You can also hit the ENTER key to accept the default (no passphrase). However, this is not recommended.

Warning

You will need to enter the passphrase a second time to continue.

After you confirm the passphrase, the system generates the key pair and you will see output like this:

Your private key is saved to the id_rsa file in the .ssh subdirectory of your home directory and is used to verifythe public key you use belongs to your Gerrit account.