1. SSH To Server Without Entering Password From Mac (OS X)
2. Mac Get Ssh Key

When you generate your keys, you will use ssh-keygen to store the keys in a safe location so you can bypass the login prompt when connecting to your server. To generate SSH keys in Mac OS X, follow these steps: Enter the following command in the Terminal window. Ssh-keygen -t rsa This starts the key generation process.

Introduction

Ssh-keygen -t rsa This starts the key generation process. When you execute this command, the ssh-keygen utility prompts you to indicate where to store the key. Press the ENTER key to accept the default location. The ssh-keygen utility prompts you for a passphrase. Type in a passphrase. You can also hit the ENTER key to accept the default (no passphrase). SiteGround uses key pairs for SSH authentication purposes, as opposed to plain username and password. More information on SSH keys is available here. You can generate an SSH key pair in Mac OS following these steps: Open up the Terminal by going to Applications Utilities Terminal. If you get Bad passphrase on an ided25519 key but the password is correct, then you are probably using a down-level ssh-keygen to manage it. – jww Aug 27 '15 at 22:07 add a comment 3 Answers 3.

Setting up SSH based security to access your server is a much more effective way than the use of a manual root password. Cracking the security system of a node depending on SSH keys is nearly impossible since it secures your node in a more sophisticated way by the use of encoded keys.

Why is a password-based authentication vulnerable?

A server can authenticate & grant access to the users with different access methods. The most basic of these is a password-based authentication, which is easy to use but isn’t the most secure.

Modern processing power combined with automated scripts make brute forcing a password-protected account very possible since passwords generally are not complex. SSH keys prove to be a reliable and secure alternative.

What are SSH Keys?

SSH key pairs are two cryptographically secure keys that can be used to authenticate a client to an SSH server. Each key pair consists of a public key and a private key.

The private key is retained by the client on his local machine and should be kept absolutely secret. Any compromise of the private key will allow the attacker to log into servers that are configured with the associated public key without additional authentication. As an additional precaution, the key can be encrypted on disk with a passphrase.

The public key is uploaded onto the remote server that you want to be able to log into with SSH.
When a client attempts to authenticate using SSH keys, the server can test the client on whether they are in possession of the private key. If the key-pair matches then a shell session is spawned or the requested command is executed.

How do SSH keys work

• A key pair will be generated on your local PC.
• Generating a key pair provides you with two long string of characters: a public and a private key.
• The public key will be added to your node.
• The corresponding private key pair will be saved on your local PC.
• Every time you access your node, the SSH system will look up for the private key pair of the public key added to it. The system will unlock only when the two keys match.
• You can also disable the root password after the SSH keys are set up.

Make sure that you add the public key to the servers and the private key is saved in a secure location on your PC.

Setup SSH keys – macOS

The following outlines the process of setting up key-based SSH login on Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server. To set up key-based SSH, you must generate the keys the two computers will use to establish and validate the identity of each other.

This doesn’t authorize all users of the computer to have SSH access. Keys must be generated for each user account.

Step 1 – Verification of .ssh directory

Verify that an .ssh folder exists in your home folder by entering the command-

If .ssh is listed in the output, move to next step.

If .ssh is not listed in the output, run

mkdir ~/.ssh

Change directories in the shell to the hidden .ssh directory by entering the following command:

Step 2 – Create the RSA Key Pair

Generate the public and private keys by entering the following command:

ssh-keygen -b 1024 -t rsa -f id_rsa

(The -b flag sets the length of the keys to 1,024-bits, -t indicates to use the RSA hashing algorithm, -f sets the file name as id_rsa.)

The above command will follow up with some confirmation messages

[root@e2e ~]# ssh-keygen -b 1024 -t rsa -f id_rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

press Enter to set the passprase to null

Two files will be generated after this step.

• id_rsa (Private Key)
• id_rsa.pub (public key)

Note: Keys are equivalent to passwords so you should keep them private and protected.DO NOT SHARE YOUR PRIVATE KEY (id_rsa)

SSH To Server Without Entering Password From Mac (OS X)

Prior to scp/ssh we have to add the identity to the user for whom we generated the key, by running

Step 3 – Copy the Public Key to your node

Now you can copy and add your public key id_rsa.pub file, to set up SSH on your node under MyAccount.

You can usually get this key by copying the results of:

Paste the results generated from id_rsa.pub to the SSH section under MyAccount.

You may add multiple SSH keys & can provide a label to each SSH key for easy identification & management purpose.

Copy the public key directly to a server (Alternate Approach)

Mac Get Ssh Key

The commandssh-copy-id can be used to install an authorized key on the server.

If you don’t have SSH access to the server then it will require a root password which is shared with you in the email.

Once the key has been authorized for SSH, it grants access to the server without a password.

Use a command like the following to copy SSH key:

Enter the following command to copy your public key to your Node:

This will copy your public key to the authorized_keys file on your server.

Make sure to replace xxx.xx.xx.xx with your actual Ip address and replace user with your actual username in the above command.

Once you enter the ssh-copy-id command, you will see information similar to this:

Only the public key is copied to the server. The private key should never be copied to a machine.

Modifying permissions

For an additional layer of security, modify the file permissions.

Directory .ssh should have 700 permissions and authorized_keys file should have 400 or 600 permissions. To change the permissions, use the following commands:

Now log into the remote server using ssh or scp/sftp:

You generate an SSH key through macOS by using the Terminal application. Once you upload a valid public SSH key, the Triton Compute Service uses SmartLogin to copy the public key to any new SmartMachine you provision.

Joyent recommends RSA keys because the node-manta CLI programs work with RSA keys both locally and with the ssh agent. DSA keys will work only if the private key is on the same system as the CLI, and not password-protected.

About Terminal

Terminal is the terminal emulator which provides a text-based command line interface to the Unix shell of macOS.

To open the macOS Terminal, follow these steps:

1. In Finder, choose Utilities from the Applications folder.
2. Find Terminal in the Utilities listw.
3. Open Terminal.

The Terminal window opens with the commandline prompt displaying the name of your machine and your username.

Generating an SSH key

An SSH key consists of a pair of files. One is the private key, which should never be shared with anyone. The other is the public key. The other file is a public key which allows you to log into the containers and VMs you provision. When you generate the keys, you will use ssh-keygen to store the keys in a safe location so you can bypass the login prompt when connecting to your instances.

To generate SSH keys in macOS, follow these steps:

1. Enter the following command in the Terminal window.

   This starts the key generation process. When you execute this command, the ssh-keygen utility prompts you to indicate where to store the key.

2. Press the ENTER key to accept the default location. The ssh-keygen utility prompts you for a passphrase.

3. Type in a passphrase. You can also hit the ENTER key to accept the default (no passphrase). However, this is not recommended.

You will need to enter the passphrase a second time to continue.

After you confirm the passphrase, the system generates the key pair.

Your private key is saved to the id_rsa file in the .ssh directory and is used to verify the public key you use belongs to the same Triton Compute Service account.

Your public key is saved to the id_rsa.pub;file and is the key you upload to your Triton Compute Service account. You can save this key to the clipboard by running this:

Importing your SSH key

Now you must import the copied SSH key to the portal.

1. After you copy the SSH key to the clipboard, return to your account page.
2. Choose to Import Public Key and paste your SSH key into the Public Key field.
3. In the Key Name field, provide a name for the key. Note: although providing a key name is optional, it is a best practice for ease of managing multiple SSH keys.
4. Add the key. It will now appear in your table of keys under SSH.

Troubleshooting

You may see a password prompt like this:

This is because:

• You did not enter the correct passphrase.
• The private key on your Macintosh (id_rsa) does not match the public key stored with your Triton Compute Service account.
• The public key was not entered correctly in your Triton account.

What are my next steps?

Right in the portal, you can easily create Docker containers, infrastructure containers, and hardware virtual machines.

In order to use the Terminal to create instances, set up triton and CloudAPI as well as the triton-docker commandline tool.