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Generating your own SSH key

Windows

To generate an SSH key on Windows you will need to download PuttyGen from https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

Once you have PuttyGen downloaded, open it and you should see a screen such as the one below.puttygen_2023-04-12_21-50-38.png

We would recommend changing the Parameters at the bottom so that EdDSA is selected, this will allow you to generate a key quickly and provide a shorter yet very secure key.

Once you have selected EdDSA click on the generate button.

puttygen_2023-03-23_02-18-27.png

You will now need to move your mouse around in the box below the progress bar to generate your key.

puttygen_2023-03-23_02-18-40.png

Once the key has been generated and the progress bar disappears, click on the Save public key and the Save private key and save them to a safe location on your computer, you can also set a passphrase/password on the keys if you desire.

puttygen_2023-03-23_02-19-40.png

macOS/Linux

  • Open the terminal app on your operating system
  • macOS
    • Open Launchpad and type Terminal in the search bar at the top
  • Linux
    • How you open the terminal varies depending on your flavour of Linux, it also may be named console or Konsole
  • Once the terminal is open, type ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f myCreeperHostSSHKey and press enter.
    • You may be asked about entering a passphrase/password, you don't need to set a passphrase but it does increase the security of your key
  • You will now have generated a key in your user directory and will need to upload the public key to your server
  • To get your public key, type the following in the terminal cat myCreeperHostSSHKey.pub
  • You should now see the public key be printed in the terminal, copy this, then paste it into the box on the panel.
    • NEVER share your private key with anyone, as this will allow them to access your server.
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