M100351: CIT admins: generating SSH keys

How an admin can generate an SSH key on their Windows PC and send it in to CIT to allow admin access to local firewall and VPN boxes.

To set up an admin person for access to their local firewall/vpn boxes etc we need to have their SSH public key, and they need to set up and keep an SSH private key. If you don't have an SSH key, you can generate one really easily using 'puttygen' from the PuTTY package. A quick overview of the process (using Peter Kinch as an example):

- Run puttygen (possibly in Start -> Programs -> Putty -> PuttyGen), select SSH1 RSA (should default to that) and press the generate button, and move the mouse as requested until the generation starts

- Change key comment to Peter.Kinch@managesoft.com

- enter a reasonably secure passphrase twice (not just one word, preferably one or more non-dictionary words/punctuation but not so complex you'll forget it)

- Click on "Save Public key" and save as pkinch.pub - Click on "Save Private key" and save as pkinch.ppk You then need to either cut and paste the section from the top ("Public key for pasting into authorized_keys file") and send that to CIT.

Instead of sending that, you can also send us the pkinch.pub file (if an attachment, don't send to cit-jobs).

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