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. PuTTYgen.exe is the graphical tool on Windows OS. While on the other side, Linux OS has the only command-line version could be accessible using SSH commands.

• Aug 10, 2014  World's Most Famous Hacker Kevin Mitnick & KnowBe4's Stu Sjouwerman Opening Keynote - Duration: 36:30. Cyber Investing Summit Recommended for you.
• New keys with OpenSSH private key format can be converted using ssh-keygen utility to the old PEM format. Ssh-keygen -p -m PEM -f /.ssh/idrsa There is no need to downgrade to older OpenSSH just to achieve this result.
• To generate SSH keys in Mac OS X, follow these steps: Enter the following command in the Terminal window: ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096. This starts the key generation process. When you execute this command, the ssh-keygen utility prompts you to indicate where to store the key.
• Mar 22, 2019  To generate a new Key pair, run the following commands on your home computer. Open your terminal and run the following command under your username. local$ ssh-keygen -t rsa This creates a public/private keypair of the type (-t) rsa.
• Oct 06, 2018 Thats your SSH keys created, the private key is the idrsa and the public one is the idrsa.pub, don’t give out the private one always keep that one only on your local machine. Sharing the Public Key. Create an authorizedkeys in the.ssh directory of the remote computer that you want to connect to. Touch authorizedkeys.
• Mac Guides; Generating SSH Keys on macOS Sierra (10.12) and High Sierra (10.13). This tutorial will show you how to generate and secure SSH keys on macOS Sierra (10.12) and macOS High Sierra (10.13). SSH keys allow you to log into your server without a password. Add new key to remote server.

• 1 Download PuTTYgen
  • 1.1 Download PuTTYgen on Windows
  • 1.2 Download PuTTYgen for Mac
  • 1.3 Download PuTTYgen for Ubuntu/Linux
    • 1.3.3 Types of Keys Supported on PuTTYgen

The standard OpenSSH suite of tools contains the ssh-keygen utility, which is used to generate key pairs. Run it on your local computer to generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair, which is fine for most uses. Ssh-keygen The utility prompts you to select a location for the keys.

Puttygen aka Putty Key Generator

The key generation utility – PuTTYgen can create various public-key cryptosystems including Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), and Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) keys.

The aforementioned public-key cryptosystems principally focus on secure data transmission and digital signatures.

Although PuTTYgen collects keys in its native file format i.e. .ppk files, the keys can easily be converted to any file format. For Windows, the software interface is PuTTYgen.exe, whereas, for Linux OS the command-line adaptation is available using SSH commands.

How to use PuTTYgen?

PuTTYgen is used to generate public or private key pair for creating SSH keys. Below is the complete guidance about how to generate RSA key in the Windows operating system:

1. Once you install the PuTTY on your machine, you can easily run PuTTYgen. For the same, go to Windows -> Start Menu -> All Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTYgen.
2. You will see the PuTTY key generator dialog box on your screen
3. You will find a “Generate” button in that dialog. Clicking on it will lead to generating the keys for you.
4. Now you will need to add a unique key passphrase in the Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase field.
5. Click on the “Save Public Key” and “Save Private Key” buttons to save your public and private keys.
6. You will see the text starting with ssh-RSA in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file field which is located at the top of the window. Copy that entire text to your clipboard by pressing ctrl+c as you will require the key to paste on your clipboard in the public key tool of control panel or directly on the cloud server.

Various Ways to Use RSA Key Pair

RSA key pair generated through PuTTYgen is used in two various ways defined as below:

1. To assign while creating a new cloud server
   You can choose the public key from the given list of keys at the time of creating a cloud server. If you don’t find your key in that list, then first add and then assign it.
2. Assign to an existing cloud server
   At the time of connecting to the cloud server, first of all, you need to tell PuTTY to use it for utilizing your newly created RSA key pair.

PuTTYgen being a component of the terminal emulator PuTTY does not have to be downloaded separately, hence, comes with the PuTTY .msi installation package. You can follow the simple steps to download PuTTYgen software for your system. That is the reason why you don’t need to download PuTTYgen separately. Once you download PuTTY software, you will be able to install and run PuTTYgen easily in no time. Below is the complete instruction about how to download and install PuTTY on Windows.

Make New Ssh Key Mac

Apart from that, it is also integrated into third-party programs such as WinSCP installation package. Below you can find a complete PuTTYgen download and installation guide for all operating systems.

Download PuTTYgen on Windows

To download PuTTYgen the primary requisite is to acquire the copy of PuTTY installation package. For the 64-bit operating system, one must install the 64-bit version of PuTTY, i.e. putty-64bit-<version>-installer.msi.Similarly, for the 32-bit operating system, the respective 32-bit version of PuTTY, i.e. putty-<version>-installer.msi needs to be installed.

To get PuTTY, go to PuTTY Installation Download page, whereby the complete installation package will be available with setup instructions, installation guide, and download links to all other components of PuTTY such as putty.exe, pscp.exe, psftp.exe, puttytel.exe, plink.exe, pageant.exe and putty.zip.

Following the successful download of the PuTTY installation package. It is time to install the program. Go to How to install PuTTY on Windows, whereby you will find the step by step guidance for PuTTY installation for Windows operating system.

After successfully downloading and installing PuTTY on your Windows machine, you are just 2-3 clicks away to run PuTTYgen. Follow the below-given step by step guidance to run PuTTYgen:

Run PuTTYgen on Windows

To run PuTTYgen, Go to Windows -> Start Menu -> All Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTYgen. You will see a window for the PuTTY Key Generator on your screen.

Voila! Now you can generate public or private key pair using PuTTYgen.

Download PuTTYgen for Mac

Below is the detailed guide to download PuTTYgen on Mac operating system. Mac OS has a built-in command-line SSH client known as Terminal. To utilize it, go to Finder and then opt for Go -> utilities from the top menu. After that find the terminal which supports SSH connections to remote servers.

However, to run PuTTYgen for mac, the first one must have to install PuTTY. There are multiple ways to install PuTTY, which are Homebrew or MacPorts. Both alternatives will also install the command-line of adaptations of PuTTYgen.

Ported PuTTY for Mac

Mac has the port of PuTTY which can be installed in various ways described as below:

1. Installation using Homebrew:
   First, install the ‘brew command line’ Once installed use the below-given command to install PuTTY:-
   sudo brew install putty
   
2. Installation using MacPorts:
   First of all, one must install MacPorts and then use the command-line to install PuTTY. Here is the command to install PuTTY via MacPorts
   sudo port install putty
   Additionally, a user can also add a shortcut to the desktop by writing the following command line
   –cp /opt/local/bin/putty ~/Desktop/PuTTY

However, there is an alternative way to install PuTTY on Mac OS. Cyberduck is a widely used Mac OS SSH Client. Once PuTTY installed on the Mac OS, a user can convert PuTTY derived private key format to OpenSSH.

To convert the private key to standard PEM format, type the following command –

puttygen privatekey.ppk -O private-openssh -o privatekey.pem

You can also read the guide to convert .pem file to .ppk using puttygen.

Download PuTTYgen for Ubuntu/Linux

To download PuTTYgen for Ubuntu (Linux) operating system, a user to first install PuTTY. However, in some Linux distributions, the SSH key generation tool – PuTTYgen needs to be installed independently from the PuTTY client.

For example, Debian Linux requires the below-given code to install PuTTYgen:

sudo apt install putty-tools

Generate Key Pair for Authentication in Linux

To create the key pair for authentication in Linux use the below command:-

puttygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C 'user@host' -o keyfile.ppk

Various Command Line Options of PuTTY in Linux

Below are few important command line options in the Linux operating system for PuTTY:

PuTTYgen [-t keytype [-b bits] [-q] keyfile]
[-C new-comment] [-P]
[-O output-type -p -l -L]
[-o output-file]

Options:

1. Keyfile – It is the name of the existing key file to read at the time of changing the current key.
2. –t keytype – The command specifies the type of key to creating. Its acceptable values are RSA and dsa.rsa1.
3. -b bits – This command specifies a total number of bit in a particular key. 1024 is the perfect size for DSA key, while 2048 or 4096 are the perfect size for RSA keys.
4. –q – The command suppresses the message about progress at the time of key generation.
5. -C new-comment – The command will specify the comment to describe the key. It can be used for the new and/or existing key. Key operation is not affected by a comment. However, it is used to recognize the key owner, it’s not reliable completely as any value can be applied to it.
6. –P – Using the command will update the passphrase of a key. Passphrase helps to encrypt the private key. As passphrase can’t add or update on a command line, it prompts a new passphrase tool to alter it.
7. –old-passphrase-file – The old password of the key remains in this file. The command is used when the key is protected by a passphrase.
8. –new-passphrase file – This command prompts the new passphrase of the key. It comes in the action either at the time of generating a new key or while applying –P command to change the passphrase.
9. -O output-type – This command defines what to give in output. By default, the private key is the output.

Thus, above are the prominent commands of PuTTYgen in Linux operating system. Besides that, there are many other commands available to perform various tasks from the command prompt in Linux at flank speed.

Types of Keys Supported on PuTTYgen

It is important to know the types of key PuTTYgen supports prior to using it. Below are the key types that it currently supports for SSH-2 and SSH-1 protocol:-

• SSH-1 protocol:- For SSH-1 only supports one key i.e. Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA)
• SSH-2 protocol: – SSH-2 supports multiple key types that include – Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and Ed25519.

The above description is a detailed brief on downloading and running PuTTYgen on all major operating systems. For further details please check the Download PuTTY page.

This version of GitHub Enterprise will be discontinued on This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2019-03-27. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise.For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

After you've checked for existing SSH keys, you can generate a new SSH key to use for authentication, then add it to the ssh-agent.

If you don't already have an SSH key, you must generate a new SSH key. If you're unsure whether you already have an SSH key, check for existing keys.

If you don't want to reenter your passphrase every time you use your SSH key, you can add your key to the SSH agent, which manages your SSH keys and remembers your passphrase.

Generating a new SSH key

1. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bashthe terminal.

2. Paste the text below, substituting in your GitHub Enterprise email address.

   This creates a new ssh key, using the provided email as a label.

3. When you're prompted to 'Enter a file in which to save the key,' press Enter. This accepts the default file location.

4. At the prompt, type a secure passphrase. For more information, see 'Working with SSH key passphrases'.

Adding your SSH key to the ssh-agent

Before adding a new SSH key to the ssh-agent to manage your keys, you should have checked for existing SSH keys and generated a new SSH key. When adding your SSH key to the agent, use the default macOS ssh-add command, and not an application installed by macports, homebrew, or some other external source./c-generate-rsa-public-private-key-pair.html.

1. Start the ssh-agent in the background.

2. If you're using macOS Sierra 10.12.2 or later, you will need to modify your ~/.ssh/config file to automatically load keys into the ssh-agent and store passphrases in your keychain.

3. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent and store your passphrase in the keychain. If you created your key with a different name, or if you are adding an existing key that has a different name, replace id_rsa in the command with the name of your private key file.

   Note: The -K option is Apple's standard version of ssh-add, which stores the passphrase in your keychain for you when you add an ssh key to the ssh-agent.

   If you don't have Apple's standard version installed, you may receive an error. For more information on resolving this error, see 'Error: ssh-add: illegal option -- K.'

4. Add the SSH key to your GitHub account.

If you have GitHub Desktop installed, you can use it to clone repositories and not deal with SSH keys. It also comes with the Git Bash tool, which is the preferred way of running git commands on Windows.

1. Ensure the ssh-agent is running:

   • If you are using the Git Shell that's installed with GitHub Desktop, the ssh-agent should be running.

   • If you are using another terminal prompt, such as Git for Windows, you can use the 'Auto-launching the ssh-agent' instructions in 'Working with SSH key passphrases', or start it manually:

2. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent. If you created your key with a different name, or if you are adding an existing key that has a different name, replace id_rsa in the command with the name of your private key file.

3. Add the SSH key to your GitHub account.

Generate New Ssh Key Mac

1. Start the ssh-agent in the background.

2. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent. If you created your key with a different name, or if you are adding an existing key that has a different name, replace id_rsa in the command with the name of your private key file.

3. Add the SSH key to your GitHub account.

1. Start the ssh-agent in the background.

2. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent. If you created your key with a different name, or if you are adding an existing key that has a different name, replace id_rsa in the command with the name of your private key file.

3. Add the SSH key to your GitHub account.

Further reading

Generate An Ssh Key Linux

• 'About SSH'
• 'Working with SSH key passphrases'