PuTTYgen is a tool used for generating public and private SSH keys which are its fundamental function. Though it collects keys in its own file format i.e. .ppk files, keys can also be transformed to any other file format quickly. It is available for the various operating system, i.e. Windows, Linux, Mac, etc. PuTTYgen.exe is the graphical tool on Windows OS. While on the other side, Linux OS has the only command-line version.
Contents
- 2 Download PuTTYgen
- 2.1 Download PuTTYgen on Windows
- 2.2 Download PuTTYgen for Mac
- 2.3 Download PuTTYgen for Linux
- Ssh client is more than a mere SSH client – it’s a complete command-line solution that’s redefining remote access for sysadmins and network engineers. Securely access Linux or IoT devices and quickly fix issues from the comfort of your couch via laptop or phone.
- What is SSH Tool? SSH, which is also known as Secure Socket Shell, is a network protocol that aids administrators in accessing a remote computer in a secure manner. It enables secure encrypted communication between the two computers when connected over an insecure network like Internet.
- PuTTY 0.74, released today, is a bug-fix and security release. It fixes bugs in 0.73, including one possible vulnerability, and also adds a new configuration option to mitigate a minor information leak in SSH host key policy. 2019-09-29 PuTTY 0.73 released. PuTTY 0.73, released today, is a bug-fix release.
Price: KiTTY is free to use. KiTTY is an SSH client that is based on PuTTY’s 0.71 version.
PuTTYgen is used to generate public or private key pair for creating SSH keys. Below is the complete guidance about how to generate RSA key in Windows operating system:
- Once you install the PuTTY on your machine, you can easily run PuTTYgen. For the same, go to Windows -> Start Menu -> All Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTYgen.
- You will see the PuTTY key generator dialog box on your screen
- You will find a “Generate” button in that dialog. Clicking on it will lead to generating the keys for you.
- Now you will need to add a unique key passphrase in the Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase field.
- Click on the “Save Public Key” and “Save Private Key” buttons to save your public and private keys.
- You will see the text starting with ssh-RSA in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file field which is located at the top of the window. Copy that entire text to your clipboard by pressing ctrl+c as you will require the key to paste on your clipboard in the public key tool of control panel or directly on the cloud server.
Various Ways to Use RSA Key Pair
RSA key pair generated through PuTTYgen is used in two various ways defined as below:
- To assign while creating a new cloud server
You can choose the public key from the given list of keys at the time of creating cloud server. If you don’t find your key in that list, then first add and then assign it. - Assign to an existing cloud server
At the time of connecting to the cloud server, first of all, you need to tell PuTTY to use it for utilizing your newly created RSA key pair.
The installation of PuTTYgen is very simple as it is installed as a part of normal PuTTY .msi package installation. You can follow the simple steps to download PuTTYgen software for your system. That is the reason why you don’t need to download PuTTYgen separately. Once you download PuTTY software, you will be able to install and run PuTTYgen easily in no time. Below is the complete instruction about how to download and install PuTTY on Windows.
Download PuTTYgen on Windows
The very first requisite is to acquire the copy of PuTTY installation package. If your system is of 64-bit, then you should install a 64-bit version of PuTTY, i.e. putty-64bit-<version>-installer.msi. In case of a 32-bit operating system, you will need to install the 32-bit version of PuTTY, i.e. putty-<version>-installer.msi
Go to PuTTY Installation Download page, where you will find the download link of PuTTY installation package with the exhaustive details of its installation, setup instruction, verifying release signature, various alternatives, many more.
Once the PuTTY installation package is downloaded successfully, now it’s time to install it by starting the installer. Go to How to install PuTTY on Windows where you will find the step by step guidance for PuTTY installation for Windows operation system.
After successfully downloading and installing PuTTY on your Windows machine, you are just 2-3 clicks away to run PuTTYgen. Follow the below-given step by step guidance to run PuTTYgen:
Run PuTTYgen on Windows
1. Go to Windows -> Start Menu -> All Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTYgen. You will see a window for PuTTY Key Generator on your screen.
That’s it. Now you can generate public or private key pair using PuTTYgen. puttygen
Download PuTTYgen for Mac
You can find the step by step guide to download PuTTYgen for Mac operating system. Command-line SSH client is a part of the Mac operating system. To utilize it, go to Finder and then opt for Go -> utilities from the top menu. After that find the terminal which supports SSH connections to remote servers.
Ported PuTTY for Mac
Mac has the port of PuTTY which can be installed in various ways described as below:
- Installation using Homebrew:
Use the below-given command to install PuTTY in case you have already installed “brew”command.sudo brew install putty - Installation using MacPorts:
PuTTY is easily available through MacPorts. First of all, install MacPorts and then apply the below-given command.
sudo port install puttyUse the below-given command to add the shortcut on the desktop.cp /opt/local/bin/putty ~/Desktop/PuTTY - Alternatives to PuTTY on Mac OSCyberduck, used by many people on Mac OS is the best SSH Client is the ultimate alternative to PuTTY on Mac OS.
Download PuTTYgen for Linux
In order to download PuTTYgen for Linux (Ubuntu) operating system, one required to install PuTTYgen separate from the PuTTY client in case of some Linux distributions.
For example, Debian Linux requires the below-given code to install PuTTYgen:
sudo aptitude install putty-tools
Generate Key Pair for Authentication in Linux
Use the below command to create the key pair for authentication in Linux.
PuTTYgen -t RSA -b 2048 -C “user@host” -o keyfile.ppk
Various Command Line Options of PuTTY in Linux
Below is the list of important command line options for PuTTY in Linux operating system.
PuTTYgen [-t keytype [-b bits] [-q] | keyfile]
[-C new-comment] [-P]
[-O output-type | -p | -l | -L]
[-o output-file]
Options:
- Keyfile – It is the name of the existing key file to read at the time of changing the current key.
- -t keytype – This command specifies the type of the key to creating. Its acceptable values are RSA and dsa.rsa1.
- -b bits – This command specifies a total number of bit in a particular key. 1024 is the perfect size for DSA key, while 2048 or 4096 are the perfect size for RSA keys.
- -q – This command suppresses the message about progress at the time of key generation.
- -C new-comment – This command is used to specify the comment to describe the key. It can be used for new and/or existing key. Key operation is not affected by comment. However, it is used to recognize the key owner, it’s not reliable completely as any value can be applied to it.
- –P – This command is used to update the passphrase of a key. Passphrase helps to encrypt the private key. As passphrase can’t be add or update on command line, it prompts a new passphrase tool to alter it.
- –old-passphrase-file – The old password of the key remains in this file. This is used when the key is protected by a passphrase.
- –new-passphrase file – This file entails the new passphrase of the key. This command comes in the action either at the time of generating new key or while applying –P command to change the passphrase.
- -O output-type – This command defines what to give in output. By default, the private key is the output.
Thus, above are the prominent commands of PuTTYgen in Linux operating system. There are many other commands also available to perform a various task from the command prompt in Linux at flank speed.
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PuTTY is a free implementation of SSH and Telnet for Windows and Unixplatforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. It iswritten and maintained primarily bySimon Tatham.
The latest version is 0.74.Download it here.
LEGAL WARNING:Use of PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP and Plink is illegal in countries whereencryption is outlawed. We believe it is legal to use PuTTY, PSCP,PSFTP and Plink in England and Wales and in many other countries, butwe are not lawyers, and so if in doubt you should seek legal advicebefore downloading it. You may find useful information atcryptolaw.org, which collectsinformation on cryptography laws in many countries, but wecan't vouch for its correctness.
Use of the Telnet-only binary (PuTTYtel) is unrestricted by anycryptography laws.
Latest news
2021-04-18 Pre-releases of 0.75 now available
We're working towards a 0.75 release. Pre-release builds are available, and we'd appreciate people testingthem and reporting any issues.
0.75 will be a feature release. The biggest changes all relate toPageant and/or SSH public keys. User-visible behaviour changes include:
- Pageant now allows you to load a key without decrypting it, inwhich case it will wait until you first use it to ask for thepassphrase.
- We've switched to the modern OpenSSH-style SHA-256 style of keyfingerprint.
- We've added support for the
rsa-sha2-256andrsa-sha2-512signature methods, which some servers nowrequire in order to use RSA keys. - We've introduced a new version of the PPK format for private keyfiles, to remove weak crypto and improve password-guessingresistance.
- We've introduced a new method for applications to talk to Pageanton Windows, based on the same named-pipe system used by connectionsharing instead of window messages.
2020-11-22 Primary git branch renamed
The primary branch in the PuTTY git repository is now called main,instead of git's default of master. For now, both branch namescontinue to exist, and are kept automatically in sync by a symbolic-ref on theserver. In a few months' time, the alias master will be withdrawn.
To update a normal downstream clone or checkout to use the new branch name, youcan run commands such as ‘git branch -m master main’ followed by‘git branch -u origin/main main’.
2020-06-27 PuTTY 0.74 released
PuTTY 0.74, released today, is a bug-fix and security release. Itfixes bugs in 0.73, including one possible vulnerability, and alsoadds anew configuration optionto mitigate a minor information leak in SSH host key policy.
2019-09-29 PuTTY 0.73 released
PuTTY 0.73, released today, is a bug-fix release. It fixes a small number of bugs since 0.72, and a couple of them have potential security implications.
2019-07-20 PuTTY 0.72 released
PuTTY 0.72, released today, is a bug-fix release. It fixes a smallnumber of further security issues found by the 2019 EU-fundedHackerOne bug bounty, and a variety of other bugs introduced in 0.71.
2019-07-08 Bug bounty concluded
The EU-funded bug bounty programme is now closed. Many thanks toeverybody who sent in reports!
Anyone with a vulnerability to report should now go back to reportingit in the old way, via email to the PuTTY team, as described on theFeedback page.If you think it needs to be reported confidentially, encrypt it withour Secure Contact Key.
2019-03-25 Bug bounty continues
This year's EU-funded bug bounty programme is stillrunning. It was originally scheduled to end on 7th March, butthere was money left over in the budget. So while that money lasts,you still have a chance to earn some by finding vulnerabilities inPuTTY 0.71 or the development snapshots!
As before, vulnerabilities should be reported through theHackerOne web sitein order to qualify for a bounty: if you send reports directly to thePuTTY team in the usual way, then we'll still fix them, but we can'tprovide money for them.
2019-03-16 PuTTY 0.71 released
PuTTY 0.71, released today, includes a large number of security fixes,many of which were found by the recent EU-funded HackerOne bug bounty.There are also other security enhancements (side-channel resistance),and a few new features.It's also the first release to be built for Windows on Arm.
2019-01-18 EU bug bounty for finding vulnerabilities in PuTTY
From now until 7th March, you can earn money by reporting securityvulnerabilities in PuTTY!
HackerOne is running a bugbounty programme for PuTTY, funded by the European Union as partof the ‘Free and Open Source Software Audit’ project(EU-FOSSA 2). If you report a vulnerability through their web site, itmay qualify for a bounty. (The exact amount will depend on how seriousthe problem is, and there's also a bonus for providing a patch thatfixes it.)
For more details, or if you have something to report, see the linkabove.
(Please note that HackerOne will only consider vulnerabilitiesreported to them. If you send a report directly to the PuTTYteam in the usual way, then of course we'll still fix it, but we can'talso arrange for you to get paid.)
2018-08-25 GPG key rollover
This week we've generated a fresh set of GPG keys for signing PuTTYrelease and snapshot builds. We will begin signing snapshots with thenew snapshot key, and future releases with the new release key. Thenew master key is signed with the old master keys, of course. Seethe keys page for more information.
2017-07-08 PuTTY 0.70 released, containing security and bug fixes
PuTTY 0.70, released today, fixes further problems with Windows DLLhijacking, and also fixes a small number of bugs in 0.69, includingbroken printing support and Unicode keyboard input on Windows.
Site map
- Licence conditions under which you mayuse PuTTY.
- The FAQ.
- The documentation.
- Download PuTTY:
- latest release 0.74
- pre-releases of 0.75
- Subscribe to the PuTTY-announcemailing list to be notified of new releases.
- Feedback and bug reporting: contactaddress and guidelines. Please read the guidelines beforesending us mail; we get a very large amount of mail and it will helpus answer you more quickly.
- Changes in recent releases.
- Wish list and list of known bugs.
- Links to related software andspecifications elsewhere.
- A page about the PuTTY team members.
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(last modified on Sun Apr 18 09:19:51 2021)