Secure Linux/UNIX access with PuTTY and OpenSSH

While assessing a new customer's network, one of my first recommendations was to eliminate passworded access to their main systems via secure shell, and in the process of writing up the instructions for configuring PuTTY and OpenSSH, I realized that this would be of wider interest.

So I created a Tech Tip that details how to install the wonderful and free PuTTY secure shell client and to configure it to use public key encryption without passwords on an OpenSSH server. This has a lot of screen shots and detail, and it should be enough to get anybody started on the road of secure server access.

Unixwiz.net Tech Tip: Secure Linux/UNIX access with PuTTY and OpenSSH

This really does look like a lot of work to set up, and in some respects it is, but it's largely a one-time cost which is immensely rewarded in short order. I use public-key, agented access to my servers, and I type a secret word (the pass phrase to my private key) about once a day: after that, all access "just happens".

It's really, really worth the time to learn, and I hope that this Tech Tip makes it a bit easier.

Comments

[Tony Yates]

Excellent article. I have been using this myself for some time now. It's great for giving me access to my network while at work.


I Like to use the following switches :



D:\Software\Putty\PUTTY.EXE -load Thinklife -l yatest -N



-l auto selects my username, pagent.exe is preloaded so I never have to type anything to login.

-N gives no shell access, I use my connection mainly to access to my desktop machine and secure tunnel web browsing from work.

A little creative thinking and you can do all kinds of wonderfull things with this combination of software.

Very well written.