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ssh with key files
ssh-keygen
The sudo ssh-key
command is used to create ssh key pairs
ssh-keygen default
ssh-keygen
creates a SSH key pair. The defaults are:- home directory
/homeuser/.ssh
- public key
/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa
- private key
/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
ssh-keygen with filename
ssh-keygen -f .ssh/key-with-password
creates a SSH key with non-default name and location. The defaults are:- public key
/home/user/.ssh/key-with-password
- private key
/home/user/.ssh/key-with-password.pub
Warning
During further SSH key pair generation, if you do not specify a unique file name, you are prompted for permission to overwrite the existing id_rsa and id_rsa.pub files. If you overwrite the existing id_rsa and id_rsa.pub files, you must then replace the old public key with the new one on ALL of the SSH servers that have your old public key.
Once you have generated the keys, they are stored in the /user/home/.ssh/ directory with the following permissions:
- Private key - 600
- Public key - 644
Using ssh-keygen and sharing for key-based authentication in Linux