Import SSH key into Raspberry PI (or any Linux host really)

ssh.md

• Generate the private/public keys pair

ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521

• Import public key into your server

cat ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_rpi.pub | ssh [email protected] "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

• Make sure the permissions for the private key are correct

  • In Windows go to the file properties, remove all permissions and only keep the key owner (https://stackoverflow.com/a/50877382).
  • In Linux, run chmod 600 for the file.

• Login into the server using the key (with verbose enabled)

ssh -i C:\Users\Fagner\.ssh\id_ecdsa_rpi [email protected] -v

• For future connections you can edit your .ssh/config file to link your private key to your server

Host raspberrypi.lan
  HostName raspberrypi.lan
  User pi
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_rpi

• Then you can connect without the -i parameter

ssh [email protected]

• If you configured a passphrase to the private key and you don't want to be prompted every time you connect to the server use AddKeysToAgent

Host raspberrypi.lan
  HostName raspberrypi.lan
  User pi
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_rpi
  AddKeysToAgent yes