How To Set Up OpenSSH Public Key Authentication

Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. Used primarily on GNU/Linux and Unix based systems to access shell accounts, SSH was designed as a replacement for Telnet and other insecure remote shells.

Before we start, make sure your computer has a SSH client installed and the remote Linux system has SSH installed and sshd running.

1. Generating RSA key

You will need to generate the local RSA key by running the following command:

# ssh-keygen -t rsa