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SSH

Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. SSH uses public-private key pair for authentication, allowing users to log in without having to specify a password. The public key is placed on all computers that must allow access to the owner of the matching private key (the private key must be kept secret).

Private Key

Note

The path to a private key is usually /home/username/.ssh/

A private key file in the id_rsa or *.ppk format is present locally on local side and used for example in the Pageant SSH agent (for Windows users). The private key should always be kept in a safe place.

Example of RSA Private Key Format

    -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
    MIIEpAIBAAKCAQEAqbo7jokygnBpG2wYa5NB45ns6+UKTNLMLHF0BO3zmRtKEElE
    aGqXfbYwvXlcuRb2d9/Y5dVpCZHV0kbY3NhtVOcEIe+1ROaiU9BEsUAhMNEvgiLV
    gSql4QvRO4BWPlM8+WAWXDp3oeoBh8glXyuh9teb8yq98fv1r1peYGRrW3/s4V+q
    O1SQ0XY2T7rWCYRLIP6rTMXArTI35v3WU513mn7nm1fJ7oN0QgVH5b0W9V1Kyc4l
    9vILHeMXxvz+i/5jTEfLOJpiRGYZYcaYrE4dIiHPl3IlbV7hlkK23Xb1US8QJr5G
    ADxp1VTkHjY+mKagEfxl1hQIb42JLHhKMEGqNQIDAQABAoIBAQCkypPuxZjL+vai
    UGa5dAWiRZ46P2yrwHPKpvEdpCdDPbLAc1K/CtdBkHZsUPxNHVV6eFWweW99giIY
    Av+mFWC58X8asBHQ7xkmxW0cqAZRzpkRAl9IBS9/fKjO28Fgy/p+suOi8oWbKIgJ
    3LMkX0nnT9oz1AkOfTNC6Tv+3SE7eTj1RPcMjur4W1Cd1N3EljLszdVk4tLxlXBS
    yl9NzVnJJbJR4t01l45VfFECgYEAno1WJSB/SwdZvS9GkfhvmZd3r4vyV9Bmo3dn
    XZAh8HRW13imOnpklDR4FRe98D9A7V3yh9h60Co4oAUd6N+Oc68/qnv/8O9efA+M
    /neI9ANYFo8F0+yFCp4Duj7zPV3aWlN/pd8TNzLqecqh10uZNMy8rAjCxybeZjWd
    DyhgywXhAoGBAN3BCazNefYpLbpBQzwes+f2oStvwOYKDqySWsYVXeVgUI+OWTVZ
    eZ26Y86E8MQO+q0TIxpwou+TEaUgOSqCX40Q37rGSl9K+rjnboJBYNCmwVp9bfyj
    kCLL/3g57nTSqhgHNa1xwemePvgNdn6FZteA8sXiCg5ZzaISqWAffek5AoGBAMPw
    V/vwQ96C8E3l1cH5cUbmBCCcfXM2GLv74bb1V3SvCiAKgOrZ8gEgUiQ0+TfcbAbe
    7MM20vRNQjaLTBpai/BTbmqM1Q+r1KNjq8k5bfTdAoGANgzlNM9omM10rd9WagL5
    yuJcal/03p048mtB4OI4Xr5ZJISHze8fK4jQ5veUT9Vu2Fy/w6QMsuRf+qWeCXR5
    RPC2H0JzkS+2uZp8BOHk1iDPqbxWXJE9I57CxBV9C/tfzo2IhtOOcuJ4LY+sw+y/
    ocKpJbdLTWrTLdqLHwicdn8OxeWot1mOukyK2l0UeDkY6H5pYPtHTpAZvRBd7ETL
    Zs2RP3KFFvho6aIDGrY0wee740/jWotx7fbxxKwPyDRsbH3+1Wx/eX2RND4OGdkH
    gejJEzpk/7y/P/hCad7bSDdHZwO+Z03HIRC0E8yQz+JYatrqckaRCtd7cXryTmTR
    FbvLJmECgYBDpfno2CzcFJCTdNBZFi34oJRiDb+HdESXepk58PcNcgK3R8PXf+au
    OqDBtZIuFv9U1WAg0gzGwt/0Y9u2c8m0nXziUS6AePxy5sBHs7g9C9WeZRz/nCWK
    +cHIm7XOwBEzDKz5f9eBqRGipm0skDZNKl8X/5QMTT5K3Eci2n+lTw==
    -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Example of Ed25519 Private Key Format

PuTTY-User-Key-File-3: ssh-ed25519
Encryption: aes256-cbc
Comment: eddsa-key-20240910
Public-Lines: 2
AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIBKNwqaWU260wueN00nBGRwIqeOedRedtS0T7QVn
h0i2
Key-Derivation: Argon2id
Argon2-Memory: 8192
Argon2-Passes: 21
Argon2-Parallelism: 1
Argon2-Salt: bb64fc32b368aa16d6e8159c8d921f63
Private-Lines: 1
+7StvvEmCMchEy1tUyIMLfGTZBk7dgGUpJEJzNl82qmNZD1TmQOqNmCRiK84P/TL
Private-MAC: dc3f83cef42026a2038f28e96f87367d762e72265621d82e2fe124634ec3c905

Public Key

A public key file in the *.pub format is present on the remote side and allows an access to the owner of the matching private key.

Example of RSA Public Key Format

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCpujuOiTKCcGkbbBhrk0Hjmezr5QpM0swscXQE7fOZG0oQSURoapd9tjC9eVy5FvZ339jl1WkJkdXSRtjc2G1U5wQh77VE5qJT0ESxQCEw0S+CItWBKqXhC9E7gFY+UyP5YBZcOneh6gGHyCVfK6H215vzKr3x+/WvWl5gZGtbf+zhX6o4RJDRdjZPutYJhEsg/qtMxcCtMjfm/dZTnXeafuebV8nug3RCBUflvRb1XUrJuiX28gsd4xfG/P6L/mNMR8s4kmJEZhlhxpj8Th0iIc+XciVtXuGWQrbddcVRLxAmvkYAPGnVVOQeNj69pqAR/GXaFAhvjYkseEowQao1 username@organization.example.com

Example of Ed25519 Public Key Format

---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----
Comment: "eddsa-key-20240910"
AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIBKNwqaWU260wueN00nBGRwIqeOedRedtS0T7QVn
h0i2
---- END SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----

SSH Key Management

You can manage your own SSH key for authentication to clusters: