

The final steps are to copy the public key to the Client and append it to the authorization_keys file. ssh folder associated with the user account on the Host machine.ģ.

The keys have now been generated and are stored in the. See more detail below in “Security Notes.” It is highly recommended that you enter a passphrase unless you are setting up automated routines that require automatic login. In other words, you will be logged in automatically via the secure public / private key handshake that you are in the process of setting up. If you leave this field blank you will generate keys that do not prompt for a passphrase. The passphrase can be thought of as a password for the private key - it serves as an extra layer of protection as described below. # Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): You will then be prompted for a passphrase that will be associated with this key. You should accept the suggested location unless you have reason to do otherwise. Also note that the actual suggested path may vary slightly depending your system. Note: “UserName” is the user account that you have logged into via SSH. # Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/UserName/.ssh/id_rsa): # Generating public/private rsa key pair. Execute the command and you should see the following output: Replace "server comment field" with a machine name, IP address, date, or task name so that you can easily identify where and why a given key was created.Ģ. It is helpful for identifying and managing keys within the authorized_keys file on the Client in the event that you have multiple key logins. It allows you to insert a comment that will appear in the authorized_keys file. # ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "server comment field" In terminal type the following at the command prompt: Login to the Host via SSH using your preferred terminal application and generate the public / private key pair. Let's setup SSH public key authentication between your home computer (hereafter referred to as the “ Host”) and your QNAP device (hereafter referred to as the “ Client").ġ. The below setup description assumes that you are able to run terminal or a terminal application like Putty, and that you are familiar with basic commands. Transfer / append the public key to the authorized_keys file on the client.Generate the needed Public and Private keys on the host.Security of the system is predicated on the security of the private key. When authenticating, the host machine compares the public key to the private key in order to verify the veracity of the public key. The public key is derived from the private key. Public key authentication uses a pair of computer generated keys - one public and one private – to authenticate between a host and a client. It can also simplify the login process without compromising password security. In addition, public key authentication allows for automated login routines between machines, thus enabling a range of scripted jobs (think rsync or port tunneling). If this does not help, run ssh with options for more verbosity: ssh -vvv the server side, you can review /var/log/auth.log for details.Public key authentication is considered a more secure methods of authenticating the Secure Shell than the simple password challenge routine, a method often broken by brute-force attacks. You can skip this if you're fully sure that nobody can recover the deleted private key from the server. If the private key was not protected with a password, and you put it on the server, I recommend you to generate a new one: ssh-keygen -t rsa The permissions of the (private) key on the client-side should be 600.

The file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (on the server) is supposed to have a mode of 600. The permissions of ~/.ssh on the server should be 700. (The binary format is described in the answers to this question). pub extension when generated using ssh-keygen and its contents begin with ssh-rsa AAAAB3. Instead, you must put the public key into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. You should never save the file with its contents starting with -BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY- on the server, that is your private key.
