In the following procedure a 2048-bit RSA private/public key pair will be generated on the SSH clients PC. The public key will be transferred to the copSSH server PC for installation by the copSSH server administrator in the users .ssh folder.
Make sure the user is activated on the copSSH server prior to performing this procedure.
Make sure the user can login to the copSSH server PC using PuTTY with a password.
Download the PuTTYgen software file and save to the C:\Program Files\PuTTY folder on the copSSH client PC. On the client PC go to Start | Run and run the PuTTYgen program at the command line.
Select SSH-2 RSA and 2048 bits. Click on the Generate key.
Enter an appropriate/descriptive Key comment, enter a strong pass phrase in the Key passphrase window then reenter the pass phrase in the Confirm the passphrase window.
Good pass phrases are 10-30 characters long, are not simple sentences or otherwise easily guessable (English prose has only 1-2 bits of entropy per character, and provides very bad pass phrases), and contain a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and non-alphanumeric characters.
Do NOT forget the pass phrase. Lost pass phrases can NOT BE RECOVERED.
Highlight and copy the text in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file window into a Notepad text file. Name the file with a descriptive file name with a .pub extension and save on the client PC in a temporary folder. For example the user Al might save his public key file as Al.pub in the client C:\Temp folder.
Click on the Save private key button to convert and save the private key in the C:\Program Files\PuTTY\Key Files folder on the client PC. Create the folder if needed.
In order to use a private/public key pair the newly created public key must be moved to the copSSH server PC. Use whatever means required to accomplish this, ie. floppy, flash drive, etc. The copSSH server administrator will then copy the new public key to the users C:\Program Files\copssh\home\<UserID>\.ssh\authorized_keys file. For example the copSSH server administrator might copy the Al.pub file to the C:\Program Files\copssh\home\Al\.ssh\authorized_keys file on the server PC.
Open PuTTY and load a previously saved session, or create a new session, then click on Auth. Enter the path and file name of the private key file in the Private key file for authentication window. I also recommend configuring PuTTY to only use the SSH2 Protocol. Click on SSH and select 2 only in the Preferred SSH protocol version checkbox Continue reconfiguring/configuring the PuTTY parameters then click on Session and Save.
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| Last reviewed: 26 July 2006...awj Copyright © 2006 - Alan W. Jarvi - All rights reserved The Microsoft MVP Program |
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