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

  1. Download Keygen.zip
  2. Extract the program
  3. Run Keygen.exe
  4. Click the Generate button
  5. Move your mouse around the Window to “Generate Randomness”
  6. 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

  1. Download Keygen.zip
  2. Extract the program
  3. Run Keygen.exe
  4. Click File->Load Private Key, load your private key file (id_rsa for this example)
  5. Enter the passphrase if you have one
  6. The key has been loaded as in the below figure.

Installing the Public/Private Key Pair

Installing the Public Key on Your Remote System

  1. 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

  1. From the Keygen screen Press the button “Save private key”.
  2. The converted key would be saved as “id_rsa.ppk”
  3. Open X-Config
  4. Edit your SSH or LIVE Connection
  5. Click on the Advanced tab
  6. Click on the “…” to the right of the Key File field
  7. Browse for your newly created .ppk file
  8. Save your Connection

You will now be able to authenticate via public/private key files.