SSH Key Authentication & the Config File
Set up passwordless SSH using key pairs and streamline connections with a personal SSH config file.
Why Key-Based Authentication?
SSH keys replace passwords with a cryptographic key pair. They are more secure and enable passwordless, automatable logins.
- Private key stays on your machine
- Public key is copied to the server
Generating a Key Pair
Use ssh-keygen to create a modern Ed25519 key pair. It produces a private key and a matching .pub public key.
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@example.com"All lessons in this course
- Basic Network Utilities (ping, ip, netstat)
- Secure Shell (SSH) Fundamentals
- SCP and Rsync for File Transfers
- SSH Key Authentication & the Config File