Revision 3 as of 2019-06-18 13:07:54

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Windows "direct" SSH access

This article explains how to access the SSH service on a D-ITET computer behind the ETH firewall from a Windows client outside of the ETH network (e.g. from home, abroad, ...) using the PuTTY SSH client software, without the VPN client.

What you need

You will need the following programs that can be downloaded from https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html:

Make sure these programs are installed in the system path (or all in the same directory), so the helper programs puttygen, plink, pageant needed will be found by PuTTY.

Configuration steps

Step 1: Generating a public/ private key pair

  1. Make a new folder called "keys" in your home directory, e.g. "H:\keys".

  2. Run puttygen. Make sure, that the type of key to generate is set to "RSA", then click then "Generate" button in the main window. Move your mouse pointer over the puttygen window during the key generation, to generate some random data for the key generation.

  3. When the keys are generated, copy-paste the the ssh-public key (from the textfield described with "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file:") into a text file (called H:\keys\putty_ssh_pubkey.txt). There should be only one ling line in that text file with no additional line breaks.

  4. In the fields "Key passphrase:" / "Confirm passphrase:" of the puttygen window, enter a passphrase to protect the generated private key. Make sure you don't forget that password, as you will need it later...
  5. Then save the generated public and private keys using the buttons "Save public key" / "Save private key" into two separate files, e.g. "H:\keys\putty_pubkey" and "H:\putty_privkey.ppk".
  6. Close the puttygen application

Step 2: Installing the public key in the ssh authorized_keys2 file

  1. Open the command prompt (Windows-R, enter "cmd"), the command prompt window should open.

  2. Enter H:

  3. Enter cd keys

  4. Enter type putty_ssh_pubkey.txt >> H:\.ssh\authorized_keys_2

  5. Note: if the .ssh directory does not yet exist, it must be created first (using mkdir H:\.ssh). Make sure the permissions are correct (under Linux, they should be "drwx

"; if not correct use chmod 700 .ssh)

Step 3: Configuring pageant (a key agent)

  1. Open the command prompt (Windows-R, enter "cmd"), the command prompt window should open.

  2. Enter pageant H:\putty_privkey.ppk

  3. Enter the passphrase (the one entered in Step 1) when prompted
  4. A small computer icon with a blue screen should now appear in the system tray.
  5. Right-click that icon, choose "New session" from the context menu. The PuTTY window should now pop up; Configure it as described in step 4.

Step 4: Configuring PuTTY