SSH::Generating a Key Pair for MAC

SSH::Generating a Key Pair for MAC

Generating SSH keys on Mac OS X

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.
Verification of .ssh folder
1. Verify that an .ssh folder exists in your home folder by entering the command: ls -ld ~/.ssh.
  If .ssh is listed in the output, move to step 2. If .ssh is not listed in the output, run mkdir ~/.ssh and continue to step 2.
Change directories
2. Change directories in the shell to the hidden .ssh directory by entering the following command: cd ~/.ssh
 
Key generation
3. 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. Keys are equivilant to passwords so you should keep them private and protected.
  [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. i.e, id_rsa.pub (public key) and id_rsa (Private Key).
  Once the keys are generated requested you to share the id_rsa.pub file, So that we can add the key to the server in authorized_keys file NOTE : DO NOT SHARE YOUR PRIVATE KEY (id_rsa) Prior to scp/ssh we have to add the identity to the user for whom we generated the key, by running
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
 

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