Using key based authentication with X-Win32 SSH
Key based authentication takes place based on the public/private information, rather than with the more usual method of prompting for a password. This is very convient if a non-interactive process is trying to authenticate with a remote machine.
Generating a New Public/Private Key Pair
- Download Keygen.zip
- Extract the program
- Run Keygen.exe
- Click the Generate button
- Move your mouse around the Window to “Generate Randomness”
- Your key has now been generated
See Installing the Public/Private Key Pair to add your keys to X-Win32 and the remote server
Using an Existing Pair
X-Win32 uses the putty key format for its public/private key pairs. X-Win32 cannot directly open OpenSSH keys. You need to convert your OpenSSH key to to a ppk key using the attached program Keygen.exe
- Download Keygen.zip
- Extract the program
- Run Keygen.exe
- Click File->Load Private Key, load your private key file (id_rsa for this example)
- Enter the passphrase if you have one
- The key has been loaded as in the below figure.
Installing the Public/Private Key Pair
Installing the Public Key on Your Remote System
- From the Keygen screen, copy the entire public key text into the
$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys2 file on your remote system
Installing the Private Key on X-Win32
- From the Keygen screen Press the button “Save private key”.
- The converted key would be saved as “id_rsa.ppk”
- Open X-Config
- Edit your SSH or LIVE Connection
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Click on the “…” to the right of the Key File field
- Browse for your newly created .ppk file
- Save your Connection
You will now be able to authenticate via public/private key files.