Generating authorized RSA keys

This recipe describes how to create an authorized RSA key so a user can connect to pfSense without being prompted for a password.

Getting ready

Linux and Mac users will need to ensure ssh-keygen is installed on their system (almost all distributions have this installed by default). Windows users will need to download and install the PuTTYGen tool.

How to do it...

Generate an SSH key from a Linux/Mac Client as follows:

  1. Open a terminal and run:
    ssh-keygen
  2. Save the key to the default location of /home/user/.ssh/ and specify a pass code (optional, but recommended).
  3. Your public key is now located at /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

    Generate an SSH key from a Windows client using PuTTY as follows:

  4. Open PuTTYGen and generate a public/private ...

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