SSH-KEYGEN(1) BSD General Commands Manual SSH-KEYGEN(1)
NAME
ssh-keygen — authentication key generation, management and conversion
SYNOPSIS
ssh-keygen [-q] [-b bits] [-t type] [-N new_passphrase] [-C comment] [-f output_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -p [-P old_passphrase] [-N new_passphrase] [-f keyfile]
ssh-keygen -i [-m key_format] [-f input_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -e [-m key_format] [-f input_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -y [-f input_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -c [-P passphrase] [-C comment] [-f keyfile]
ssh-keygen -l [-f input_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -B [-f input_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -D pkcs11
ssh-keygen -F hostname [-f known_hosts_file] [-l]
ssh-keygen -H [-f known_hosts_file]
ssh-keygen -R hostname [-f known_hosts_file]
ssh-keygen -r hostname [-f input_keyfile] [-g]
ssh-keygen -G output_file [-v] [-b bits] [-M memory] [-S start_point]
ssh-keygen -T output_file -f input_file [-v] [-a rounds] [-J num_lines] [-j start_line] [-K checkpt]
[-W generator]
ssh-keygen -s ca_key -I certificate_identity [-h] [-n principals] [-O option] [-V validity_interval]
[-z serial_number] file ...
ssh-keygen -L [-f input_keyfile]
ssh-keygen -A
ssh-keygen -k -f krl_file [-u] [-s ca_public] [-z version_number] file ...
ssh-keygen -Q -f krl_file file ...
DESCRIPTION
ssh-keygen generates, manages and converts authentication keys for ssh(1). ssh-keygen can create RSA keys for
use by SSH protocol version 1 and DSA, ECDSA, ED25519 or RSA keys for use by SSH protocol version 2. The type
of key to be generated is specified with the -t option. If invoked without any arguments, ssh-keygen will gen‐
erate an RSA key for use in SSH protocol 2 connections.
ssh-keygen is also used to generate groups for use in Diffie-Hellman group exchange (DH-GEX). See the MODULI
GENERATION section for details.
Finally, ssh-keygen can be used to generate and update Key Revocation Lists, and to test whether given keys have
been revoked by one. See the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section for details.
Normally each user wishing to use SSH with public key authentication runs this once to create the authentication
key in ~/.ssh/identity, ~/.ssh/id_dsa, ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa, ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 or ~/.ssh/id_rsa. Additionally, the
system administrator may use this to generate host keys, as seen in /etc/rc.
Normally this program generates the key and asks for a file in which to store the private key. The public key
is stored in a file with the same name but “.pub” appended. The program also asks for a passphrase. The
passphrase may be empty to indicate no passphrase (host keys must have an empty passphrase), or it may be a
string of arbitrary length. A passphrase is similar to a password, except it can be a phrase with a series of
words, punctuation, numbers, whitespace, or any string of characters you want. Good passphrases are 10-30 char‐
acters long, are not simple sentences or otherwise easily guessable (English prose has only 1-2 bits of entropy
per character, and provides very bad passphrases), and contain a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers,
and non-alphanumeric characters. The passphrase can be changed later by using the -p option.
There is no way to recover a lost passphrase. If the passphrase is lost or forgotten, a new key must be gener‐
ated and the corresponding public key copied to other machines.
For RSA1 keys, there is also a comment field in the key file that is only for convenience to the user to help
identify the key. The comment can tell what the key is for, or whatever is useful. The comment is initialized
to “user@host” when the key is created, but can be changed using the -c option.
result in slower passphrase verification and increased resistance to brute-force password cracking
(should the keys be stolen).
When screening DH-GEX candidates ( using the -T command). This option specifies the number of primality
tests to perform.
-B Show the bubblebabble digest of specified private or public key file.
-b bits
Specifies the number of bits in the key to create. For RSA keys, the minimum size is 768 bits and the
default is 2048 bits. Generally, 2048 bits is considered sufficient. DSA keys must be exactly 1024
bits as specified by FIPS 186-2. For ECDSA keys, the -b flag determines the key length by selecting
from one of three elliptic curve sizes: 256, 384 or 521 bits. Attempting to use bit lengths other than
these three values for ECDSA keys will fail. ED25519 keys have a fixed length and the -b flag will be
ignored.
-C comment
Provides a new comment.
-c Requests changing the comment in the private and public key files. This operation is only supported for
RSA1 keys. The program will prompt for the file containing the private keys, for the passphrase if the
key has one, and for the new comment.
-D pkcs11
Download the RSA public keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library pkcs11. When used in combination
with -s, this option indicates that a CA key resides in a PKCS#11 token (see the CERTIFICATES section
for details).
-e This option will read a private or public OpenSSH key file and print to stdout the key in one of the
formats specified by the -m option. The default export format is “RFC4716”. This option allows export‐
ing OpenSSH keys for use by other programs, including several commercial SSH implementations.
-F hostname
Search for the specified hostname in a known_hosts file, listing any occurrences found. This option is
useful to find hashed host names or addresses and may also be used in conjunction with the -H option to
print found keys in a hashed format.
-f filename
Specifies the filename of the key file.
-G output_file
Generate candidate primes for DH-GEX. These primes must be screened for safety (using the -T option)
before use.
-g Use generic DNS format when printing fingerprint resource records using the -r command.
-H Hash a known_hosts file. This replaces all hostnames and addresses with hashed representations within
the specified file; the original content is moved to a file with a .old suffix. These hashes may be
used normally by ssh and sshd, but they do not reveal identifying information should the file's contents
be disclosed. This option will not modify existing hashed hostnames and is therefore safe to use on
files that mix hashed and non-hashed names.
-h When signing a key, create a host certificate instead of a user certificate. Please see the
CERTIFICATES section for details.
Start screening at the specified line number while performing DH candidate screening using the -T
option.
-K checkpt
Write the last line processed to the file checkpt while performing DH candidate screening using the -T
option. This will be used to skip lines in the input file that have already been processed if the job
is restarted. This option allows importing keys from other software, including several commercial SSH
implementations. The default import format is “RFC4716”.
-k Generate a KRL file. In this mode, ssh-keygen will generate a KRL file at the location specified via
the -f flag that revokes every key or certificate presented on the command line. Keys/certificates to
be revoked may be specified by public key file or using the format described in the KEY REVOCATION LISTS
section.
-L Prints the contents of a certificate.
-l Show fingerprint of specified public key file. Private RSA1 keys are also supported. For RSA and DSA
keys ssh-keygen tries to find the matching public key file and prints its fingerprint. If combined with
-v, an ASCII art representation of the key is supplied with the fingerprint.
-M memory
Specify the amount of memory to use (in megabytes) when generating candidate moduli for DH-GEX.
-m key_format
Specify a key format for the -i (import) or -e (export) conversion options. The supported key formats
are: “RFC4716” (RFC 4716/SSH2 public or private key), “PKCS8” (PEM PKCS8 public key) or “PEM” (PEM pub‐
lic key). The default conversion format is “RFC4716”.
-N new_passphrase
Provides the new passphrase.
-n principals
Specify one or more principals (user or host names) to be included in a certificate when signing a key.
Multiple principals may be specified, separated by commas. Please see the CERTIFICATES section for
details.
-O option
Specify a certificate option when signing a key. This option may be specified multiple times. Please
see the CERTIFICATES section for details. The options that are valid for user certificates are:
clear Clear all enabled permissions. This is useful for clearing the default set of permissions so
permissions may be added individually.
force-command=command
Forces the execution of command instead of any shell or command specified by the user when the
certificate is used for authentication.
no-agent-forwarding
Disable ssh-agent(1) forwarding (permitted by default).
no-port-forwarding
Disable port forwarding (permitted by default).
no-pty Disable PTY allocation (permitted by default).
permit-pty
Allows PTY allocation.
permit-user-rc
Allows execution of ~/.ssh/rc by sshd(8).
permit-x11-forwarding
Allows X11 forwarding.
source-address=address_list
Restrict the source addresses from which the certificate is considered valid. The address_list
is a comma-separated list of one or more address/netmask pairs in CIDR format.
At present, no options are valid for host keys.
-o Causes ssh-keygen to save SSH protocol 2 private keys using the new OpenSSH format rather than the more
compatible PEM format. The new format has increased resistance to brute-force password cracking but is
not supported by versions of OpenSSH prior to 6.5. Ed25519 keys always use the new private key format.
-P passphrase
Provides the (old) passphrase.
-p Requests changing the passphrase of a private key file instead of creating a new private key. The pro‐
gram will prompt for the file containing the private key, for the old passphrase, and twice for the new
passphrase.
-Q Test whether keys have been revoked in a KRL.
-q Silence ssh-keygen.
-R hostname
Removes all keys belonging to hostname from a known_hosts file. This option is useful to delete hashed
hosts (see the -H option above).
-r hostname
Print the SSHFP fingerprint resource record named hostname for the specified public key file.
-S start
Specify start point (in hex) when generating candidate moduli for DH-GEX.
-s ca_key
Certify (sign) a public key using the specified CA key. Please see the CERTIFICATES section for
details.
When generating a KRL, -s specifies a path to a CA public key file used to revoke certificates directly
by key ID or serial number. See the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section for details.
-T output_file
Test DH group exchange candidate primes (generated using the -G option) for safety.
-t type
Specifies the type of key to create. The possible values are “rsa1” for protocol version 1 and “dsa”,
“ecdsa”, “ed25519”, or “rsa” for protocol version 2.
For example: “+52w1d” (valid from now to 52 weeks and one day from now), “-4w:+4w” (valid from four
weeks ago to four weeks from now), “20100101123000:20110101123000” (valid from 12:30 PM, January 1st,
2010 to 12:30 PM, January 1st, 2011), “-1d:20110101” (valid from yesterday to midnight, January 1st,
2011).
-v Verbose mode. Causes ssh-keygen to print debugging messages about its progress. This is helpful for
debugging moduli generation. Multiple -v options increase the verbosity. The maximum is 3.
-W generator
Specify desired generator when testing candidate moduli for DH-GEX.
-y This option will read a private OpenSSH format file and print an OpenSSH public key to stdout.
-z serial_number
Specifies a serial number to be embedded in the certificate to distinguish this certificate from others
from the same CA. The default serial number is zero.
When generating a KRL, the -z flag is used to specify a KRL version number.
MODULI GENERATION
ssh-keygen may be used to generate groups for the Diffie-Hellman Group Exchange (DH-GEX) protocol. Generating
these groups is a two-step process: first, candidate primes are generated using a fast, but memory intensive
process. These candidate primes are then tested for suitability (a CPU-intensive process).
Generation of primes is performed using the -G option. The desired length of the primes may be specified by the
-b option. For example:
# ssh-keygen -G moduli-2048.candidates -b 2048
By default, the search for primes begins at a random point in the desired length range. This may be overridden
using the -S option, which specifies a different start point (in hex).
Once a set of candidates have been generated, they must be screened for suitability. This may be performed
using the -T option. In this mode ssh-keygen will read candidates from standard input (or a file specified
using the -f option). For example:
# ssh-keygen -T moduli-2048 -f moduli-2048.candidates
By default, each candidate will be subjected to 100 primality tests. This may be overridden using the -a
option. The DH generator value will be chosen automatically for the prime under consideration. If a specific
generator is desired, it may be requested using the -W option. Valid generator values are 2, 3, and 5.
Screened DH groups may be installed in /etc/ssh/moduli. It is important that this file contains moduli of a
range of bit lengths and that both ends of a connection share common moduli.
CERTIFICATES
ssh-keygen supports signing of keys to produce certificates that may be used for user or host authentication.
Certificates consist of a public key, some identity information, zero or more principal (user or host) names and
a set of options that are signed by a Certification Authority (CA) key. Clients or servers may then trust only
the CA key and verify its signature on a certificate rather than trusting many user/host keys. Note that
OpenSSH certificates are a different, and much simpler, format to the X.509 certificates used in ssl(8).
ssh-keygen supports two types of certificates: user and host. User certificates authenticate users to servers,
identifying the CA key by providing its public half as an argument to -s:
$ ssh-keygen -s ca_key.pub -D libpkcs11.so -I key_id host_key.pub
In all cases, key_id is a "key identifier" that is logged by the server when the certificate is used for authen‐
tication.
Certificates may be limited to be valid for a set of principal (user/host) names. By default, generated cer‐
tificates are valid for all users or hosts. To generate a certificate for a specified set of principals:
$ ssh-keygen -s ca_key -I key_id -n user1,user2 user_key.pub
$ ssh-keygen -s ca_key -I key_id -h -n host.domain user_key.pub
Additional limitations on the validity and use of user certificates may be specified through certificate
options. A certificate option may disable features of the SSH session, may be valid only when presented from
particular source addresses or may force the use of a specific command. For a list of valid certificate
options, see the documentation for the -O option above.
Finally, certificates may be defined with a validity lifetime. The -V option allows specification of certifi‐
cate start and end times. A certificate that is presented at a time outside this range will not be considered
valid. By default, certificates are valid from UNIX Epoch to the distant future.
For certificates to be used for user or host authentication, the CA public key must be trusted by sshd(8) or
ssh(1). Please refer to those manual pages for details.
KEY REVOCATION LISTS
ssh-keygen is able to manage OpenSSH format Key Revocation Lists (KRLs). These binary files specify keys or
certificates to be revoked using a compact format, taking as little as one bit per certificate if they are being
revoked by serial number.
KRLs may be generated using the -k flag. This option reads one or more files from the command line and gener‐
ates a new KRL. The files may either contain a KRL specification (see below) or public keys, listed one per
line. Plain public keys are revoked by listing their hash or contents in the KRL and certificates revoked by
serial number or key ID (if the serial is zero or not available).
Revoking keys using a KRL specification offers explicit control over the types of record used to revoke keys and
may be used to directly revoke certificates by serial number or key ID without having the complete original cer‐
tificate on hand. A KRL specification consists of lines containing one of the following directives followed by
a colon and some directive-specific information.
serial: serial_number[-serial_number]
Revokes a certificate with the specified serial number. Serial numbers are 64-bit values, not including
zero and may be expressed in decimal, hex or octal. If two serial numbers are specified separated by a
hyphen, then the range of serial numbers including and between each is revoked. The CA key must have
been specified on the ssh-keygen command line using the -s option.
id: key_id
Revokes a certificate with the specified key ID string. The CA key must have been specified on the
ssh-keygen command line using the -s option.
key: public_key
Revokes the specified key. If a certificate is listed, then it is revoked as a plain public key.
sha1: public_key
Contains the protocol version 1 RSA authentication identity of the user. This file should not be read‐
able by anyone but the user. It is possible to specify a passphrase when generating the key; that
passphrase will be used to encrypt the private part of this file using 3DES. This file is not automati‐
cally accessed by ssh-keygen but it is offered as the default file for the private key. ssh(1) will
read this file when a login attempt is made.
~/.ssh/identity.pub
Contains the protocol version 1 RSA public key for authentication. The contents of this file should be
added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on all machines where the user wishes to log in using RSA authentica‐
tion. There is no need to keep the contents of this file secret.
~/.ssh/id_dsa
~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
~/.ssh/id_ed25519
~/.ssh/id_rsa
Contains the protocol version 2 DSA, ECDSA, ED25519 or RSA authentication identity of the user. This
file should not be readable by anyone but the user. It is possible to specify a passphrase when gener‐
ating the key; that passphrase will be used to encrypt the private part of this file using 128-bit AES.
This file is not automatically accessed by ssh-keygen but it is offered as the default file for the pri‐
vate key. ssh(1) will read this file when a login attempt is made.
~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
~/.ssh/id_ecdsa.pub
~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Contains the protocol version 2 DSA, ECDSA, ED25519 or RSA public key for authentication. The contents
of this file should be added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on all machines where the user wishes to log in
using public key authentication. There is no need to keep the contents of this file secret.
/etc/ssh/moduli
Contains Diffie-Hellman groups used for DH-GEX. The file format is described in moduli(5).
ENVIRONMENT
SSH_USE_STRONG_RNG
The reseeding of the OpenSSL random generator is usually done from /dev/urandom. If the
SSH_USE_STRONG_RNG environment variable is set to value other than 0 the OpenSSL random generator is
reseeded from /dev/random. The number of bytes read is defined by the SSH_USE_STRONG_RNG value. Mini‐
mum is 14 bytes. This setting is not recommended on the computers without the hardware random generator
because insufficient entropy causes the connection to be blocked until enough entropy is available.
SEE ALSO
ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), moduli(5), sshd(8)
The Secure Shell (SSH) Public Key File Format, RFC 4716, 2006.
AUTHORS
OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen. Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck,
Markus Friedl, Niels Provos, Theo de Raadt and Dug Song removed many bugs, re-added newer features and created
OpenSSH. Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.
BSD June 13, 2017 BSD
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