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This is extremely frustrating.

I host a piece of software on my server for my father. He connects to it via #SSH (using #PuTTY ). He just got a new computer, and wanted me to set it up so that he could connect, just like I did with his previous computer. No problem right?

I show up, generate the key, and authorize it on the server, but for whatever reason PuTTY refuses to acknowledge the existence of this key. I know it's not even trying, because it doesn't even ask for the passphrase to decrypt it.

Has something changed in the latest version of PuTTY that I just don't know about? Do I need to do something the enable public key authentication beyond simply specifying the path to the key?

#AskFedi

#askfedi #ssh #Putty
Whovian NineThreeSixNine
Whovian NineThreeSixNine  
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Shot in the dark, but is it in the putty key format?
Jonathan Lamothe
Jonathan Lamothe  
@Whovian NineThreeSixNine Yup. It's .ppk and was generated with the keygen program that came with it.
@Whovian NineThreeSixNine
Whovian NineThreeSixNine
Whovian NineThreeSixNine  
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There goes my idea - Good luck!
Nire Bryce
Nire Bryce  
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you might see if one of the puTTY forks like kiTTY (not to be confused with the kitty terminal) have a UI layout closer to what you/he are used to
Jonathan Lamothe
Jonathan Lamothe  
@Nire Bryce PuTTY is what he's used up until now. 🤷‍♂️
@Nire Bryce
Nire Bryce
Nire Bryce  
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yeah, but the forks have most of their interfaces fixed in the version they forked from, so they might be a way to find similar UI to what you're both used to while still having whatever security improvements
This entry was edited (4 months ago)
Jonathan Lamothe
Jonathan Lamothe  

Okay, here's where it gets weird:

I installed PuTTY on my home machine using Wine so I could test it. It worked flawlessly.

Jonathan Lamothe
Jonathan Lamothe  
Stranger and stranger still. This process works for signing into my account, but not his. I can however sign to his account with a regular SSH session, as opposed to PuTTY.
Jonathan Lamothe
Jonathan Lamothe  

It turns out I'm an idiot.

I have a bunch of machines on my LAN that all port forward out to the same VPS on different ports. I was mistaken about the port number (and therefore the host) and his account wasn't actually there. This is why it didn't bother with the key, and is also why I could connect as I have an account on all of them.

Hobson Lane
Hobson Lane  
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Perhaps it's a file permission error? Is it 700? And readable only by the user? Is it owned by the user?
social elephant in the room
social elephant in the room  
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grep -i pubkey /etc/ssh/sshd_config

PubkeyAuthentication yes

randygalbraith
randygalbraith  
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Oh Glad you figured it out. Your initial thoughts and frustrations seems pretty normal. What won the day was your persistent to search several paths -- run PuTTY via Wine -- goodness. Hope your dad was pleased. Cheers, -Randy

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