The PuTTYgen (see http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/htmldoc/Chapter8.html) key generator generates pairs of private and public keys which can be used with PuTTY, PSCP and Plink, and also by PuTTY’s authentication agent Pageant.
The general procedure for generating a new key pair using PuTTYgen is as follows:
> | Select the type of key (RSA for SSH Version 2, or DSA for SSH Version 2) and specify the key length. |
> | Click Generate and during generation move the mouse pointer in the window area. When the key has been generated, the layout of the window changes: the entire key is displayed and then the Key fingerprint box shows the fingerprint value, a short name for the generated key. |
> | Enter a passphrase in the Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase boxes. If these boxes are left empty, the private key is stored in the file in unencrypted form. This should not occur without a cogent reason. |
> | Click Save private key. PuTTYgen then opens a dialog box to ask for the storage location. |
> | Select a directory and a file name. The file is stored in the format used by PuTTY (file name extension .ppk). |
> | Click Save public key. PuTTYgen then opens a dialog box to ask for the storage location. |
> | Select a directory and a file name. |
The public key does not necessarily need to be stored locally on disk. You can also copy it directly to PuTTY sessions which run on the remote servers concerned. Proceed as follows to do this:
> | Set up a connection to these servers by means of PuTTY. |
> | Then switch to the $HOME/.ssh located there and open the |
> | Switch to the PuTTYgen window, select the entire text in the Public key for pasting into authorized_keys file box, and copy it to the clipboard. |
> | Return to the PuTTY window and enter the data from the clipboard in the open file. Pay attention that all the data is contained in one line. |
> | Save the file. |