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Generating your own SSH key

warning

NEVER share your private key with anyone, as this will allow them to access your server.

Windows​

To generate an SSH key on Windows, you will need to download PuttyGen from https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

Once you have PuttyGen downloaded, open it, and you should see a screen such as the one below.

PuTTY KeyGen Preview

We recommend changing the Parameters at the bottom so that EdDSA is selected, this allows you to generate a key quickly, and provide a shorter, yet very secure key.

Once you have selected EdDSA click on the generate button.

PuTTY KeyGen Set EdDSA & Generate

You will now need to move your mouse around in the box below the progress bar to generate your key.

PuTTY Keygen Generate Key

Once the key is generated and the progress bar disappears, click on the Save public key and Save private key buttons, and save them to a secure location on your computer. You can also set a passphrase/password on the keys if you desire.

PuTTY Keygen Save Keys

macOS/Linux​

  1. Open the terminal app on your operating system.

    • macOS: Open Launchpad and type Terminal in the search bar at the top
    • Linux: How you open the terminal varies depending on your flavour of Linux, it also may be named console or Konsole

  2. Once the terminal is open, type ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f myCreeperHostSSHKey, and press Enter.

    • You may be asked about setting a passphrase/password; this isn't a required step, but it does increase the security of your key.

You will now have generated a key in your User directory, and will need to upload the public key to your server.

  1. To get your public key, type the following in the terminal cat myCreeperHostSSHKey.pub.
  2. You should now see the public key be printed in the terminal; copy this, then paste it into the box on the CreeperPanel.