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SSH-KEYGEN(1)                      BSD General Commands Manual                      SSH-KEYGEN(1)

NAME
     ssh-keygen — authentication key generation, management and conversion

SYNOPSIS
     ssh-keygen [-q] [-b bits] [-t dsa | ecdsa | ed25519 | rsa | rsa1] [-N new_passphrase]
                [-C comment] [-f output_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -p [-P old_passphrase] [-N new_passphrase] [-f keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -i [-m key_format] [-f input_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -e [-m key_format] [-f input_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -y [-f input_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -c [-P passphrase] [-C comment] [-f keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -l [-f input_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -B [-f input_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -D pkcs11
     ssh-keygen -F hostname [-f known_hosts_file] [-l]
     ssh-keygen -H [-f known_hosts_file]
     ssh-keygen -R hostname [-f known_hosts_file]
     ssh-keygen -r hostname [-f input_keyfile] [-g]
     ssh-keygen -G output_file [-v] [-b bits] [-M memory] [-S start_point]
     ssh-keygen -T output_file -f input_file [-v] [-a rounds] [-J num_lines] [-j start_line]
                [-K checkpt] [-W generator]
     ssh-keygen -s ca_key -I certificate_identity [-h] [-n principals] [-O option]
                [-V validity_interval] [-z serial_number] file ...
     ssh-keygen -L [-f input_keyfile]
     ssh-keygen -A
     ssh-keygen -k -f krl_file [-u] [-s ca_public] [-z version_number] file ...
     ssh-keygen -Q -f krl_file file ...

DESCRIPTION
     ssh-keygen generates, manages and converts authentication keys for ssh(1).  ssh-keygen can
     create RSA keys for use by SSH protocol version 1 and DSA, ECDSA, ED25519 or RSA keys for
     use by SSH protocol version 2.  The type of key to be generated is specified with the -t
     option.  If invoked without any arguments, ssh-keygen will generate an RSA key for use in
     SSH protocol 2 connections.

     ssh-keygen is also used to generate groups for use in Diffie-Hellman group exchange (DH-
     GEX).  See the MODULI GENERATION section for details.

     Finally, ssh-keygen can be used to generate and update Key Revocation Lists, and to test
     whether given keys have been revoked by one.  See the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section for
     details.

     Normally each user wishing to use SSH with public key authentication runs this once to cre‐
     ate the authentication key in ~/.ssh/identity, ~/.ssh/id_dsa, ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa,
     ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 or ~/.ssh/id_rsa.  Additionally, the system administrator may use this to
     generate host keys.

     Normally this program generates the key and asks for a file in which to store the private
     key.  The public key is stored in a file with the same name but “.pub” appended.  The pro‐
     gram also asks for a passphrase.  The passphrase may be empty to indicate no passphrase
     (host keys must have an empty passphrase), or it may be a string of arbitrary length.  A
     passphrase is similar to a password, except it can be a phrase with a series of words, punc‐
     tuation, numbers, whitespace, or any string of characters you want.  Good passphrases are
     10-30 characters long, are not simple sentences or otherwise easily guessable (English prose
     has only 1-2 bits of entropy per character, and provides very bad passphrases), and contain
     a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and non-alphanumeric characters.  The
     passphrase can be changed later by using the -p option.

     There is no way to recover a lost passphrase.  If the passphrase is lost or forgotten, a new
     key must be generated and the corresponding public key copied to other machines.

     For RSA1 keys, there is also a comment field in the key file that is only for convenience to
     the user to help identify the key.  The comment can tell what the key is for, or whatever is
     useful.  The comment is initialized to “user@host” when the key is created, but can be
     changed using the -c option.

     After a key is generated, instructions below detail where the keys should be placed to be
     activated.

     The options are as follows:

     -A      For each of the key types (rsa1, rsa, dsa, ecdsa and ed25519) for which host keys do
             not exist, generate the host keys with the default key file path, an empty
             passphrase, default bits for the key type, and default comment.  This is used by
             system administration scripts to generate new host keys.

     -a rounds
             When saving a new-format private key (i.e. an ed25519 key or any SSH protocol 2 key
             when the -o flag is set), this option specifies the number of KDF (key derivation
             function) rounds used.  Higher numbers result in slower passphrase verification and
             increased resistance to brute-force password cracking (should the keys be stolen).

             When screening DH-GEX candidates ( using the -T command).  This option specifies the
             number of primality tests to perform.

     -B      Show the bubblebabble digest of specified private or public key file.

     -b bits
             Specifies the number of bits in the key to create.  For RSA keys, the minimum size
             is 768 bits and the default is 2048 bits.  Generally, 2048 bits is considered suffi‐
             cient.  DSA keys must be exactly 1024 bits as specified by FIPS 186-2.  For ECDSA
             keys, the -b flag determines the key length by selecting from one of three elliptic
             curve sizes: 256, 384 or 521 bits.  Attempting to use bit lengths other than these
             three values for ECDSA keys will fail.  ED25519 keys have a fixed length and the -b
             flag will be ignored.

     -C comment
             Provides a new comment.

     -c      Requests changing the comment in the private and public key files.  This operation
             is only supported for RSA1 keys.  The program will prompt for the file containing
             the private keys, for the passphrase if the key has one, and for the new comment.

     -D pkcs11
             Download the RSA public keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library pkcs11.  When
             used in combination with -s, this option indicates that a CA key resides in a
             PKCS#11 token (see the CERTIFICATES section for details).

     -e      This option will read a private or public OpenSSH key file and print to stdout the
             key in one of the formats specified by the -m option.  The default export format is
             “RFC4716”.  This option allows exporting OpenSSH keys for use by other programs,
             including several commercial SSH implementations.

     -F hostname
             Search for the specified hostname in a known_hosts file, listing any occurrences
             found.  This option is useful to find hashed host names or addresses and may also be
             used in conjunction with the -H option to print found keys in a hashed format.

     -f filename
             Specifies the filename of the key file.

     -G output_file
             Generate candidate primes for DH-GEX.  These primes must be screened for safety
             (using the -T option) before use.

     -g      Use generic DNS format when printing fingerprint resource records using the -r com‐
             mand.

     -H      Hash a known_hosts file.  This replaces all hostnames and addresses with hashed rep‐
             resentations within the specified file; the original content is moved to a file with
             a .old suffix.  These hashes may be used normally by ssh and sshd, but they do not
             reveal identifying information should the file's contents be disclosed.  This option
             will not modify existing hashed hostnames and is therefore safe to use on files that
             mix hashed and non-hashed names.

     -h      When signing a key, create a host certificate instead of a user certificate.  Please
             see the CERTIFICATES section for details.

     -I certificate_identity
             Specify the key identity when signing a public key.  Please see the CERTIFICATES
             section for details.

     -i      This option will read an unencrypted private (or public) key file in the format
             specified by the -m option and print an OpenSSH compatible private (or public) key
             to stdout.  This option allows importing keys from other software, including several
             commercial SSH implementations.  The default import format is “RFC4716”.

     -J num_lines
             Exit after screening the specified number of lines while performing DH candidate
             screening using the -T option.

     -j start_line
             Start screening at the specified line number while performing DH candidate screening
             using the -T option.

     -K checkpt
             Write the last line processed to the file checkpt while performing DH candidate
             screening using the -T option.  This will be used to skip lines in the input file
             that have already been processed if the job is restarted.

     -k      Generate a KRL file.  In this mode, ssh-keygen will generate a KRL file at the loca‐
             tion specified via the -f flag that revokes every key or certificate presented on
             the command line.  Keys/certificates to be revoked may be specified by public key
             file or using the format described in the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section.

     -L      Prints the contents of a certificate.

     -l      Show fingerprint of specified public key file.  Private RSA1 keys are also sup‐
             ported.  For RSA and DSA keys ssh-keygen tries to find the matching public key file
             and prints its fingerprint.  If combined with -v, an ASCII art representation of the
             key is supplied with the fingerprint.

     -M memory
             Specify the amount of memory to use (in megabytes) when generating candidate moduli
             for DH-GEX.

     -m key_format
             Specify a key format for the -i (import) or -e (export) conversion options.  The
             supported key formats are: “RFC4716” (RFC 4716/SSH2 public or private key), “PKCS8”
             (PEM PKCS8 public key) or “PEM” (PEM public key).  The default conversion format is
             “RFC4716”.

     -N new_passphrase
             Provides the new passphrase.

     -n principals
             Specify one or more principals (user or host names) to be included in a certificate
             when signing a key.  Multiple principals may be specified, separated by commas.
             Please see the CERTIFICATES section for details.

     -O option
             Specify a certificate option when signing a key.  This option may be specified mul‐
             tiple times.  Please see the CERTIFICATES section for details.  The options that are
             valid for user certificates are:

             clear   Clear all enabled permissions.  This is useful for clearing the default set
                     of permissions so permissions may be added individually.

             force-command=command
                     Forces the execution of command instead of any shell or command specified by
                     the user when the certificate is used for authentication.

             no-agent-forwarding
                     Disable ssh-agent(1) forwarding (permitted by default).

             no-port-forwarding
                     Disable port forwarding (permitted by default).

             no-pty  Disable PTY allocation (permitted by default).

             no-user-rc
                     Disable execution of ~/.ssh/rc by sshd(8) (permitted by default).

             no-x11-forwarding
                     Disable X11 forwarding (permitted by default).

             permit-agent-forwarding
                     Allows ssh-agent(1) forwarding.

             permit-port-forwarding
                     Allows port forwarding.

             permit-pty
                     Allows PTY allocation.

             permit-user-rc
                     Allows execution of ~/.ssh/rc by sshd(8).

             permit-x11-forwarding
                     Allows X11 forwarding.

             source-address=address_list
                     Restrict the source addresses from which the certificate is considered
                     valid.  The address_list is a comma-separated list of one or more
                     address/netmask pairs in CIDR format.

             At present, no options are valid for host keys.

     -o      Causes ssh-keygen to save SSH protocol 2 private keys using the new OpenSSH format
             rather than the more compatible PEM format.  The new format has increased resistance
             to brute-force password cracking but is not supported by versions of OpenSSH prior
             to 6.5.  Ed25519 keys always use the new private key format.

     -P passphrase
             Provides the (old) passphrase.

     -p      Requests changing the passphrase of a private key file instead of creating a new
             private key.  The program will prompt for the file containing the private key, for
             the old passphrase, and twice for the new passphrase.

     -Q      Test whether keys have been revoked in a KRL.

     -q      Silence ssh-keygen.

     -R hostname
             Removes all keys belonging to hostname from a known_hosts file.  This option is use‐
             ful to delete hashed hosts (see the -H option above).

     -r hostname
             Print the SSHFP fingerprint resource record named hostname for the specified public
             key file.

     -S start
             Specify start point (in hex) when generating candidate moduli for DH-GEX.

     -s ca_key
             Certify (sign) a public key using the specified CA key.  Please see the CERTIFICATES
             section for details.

             When generating a KRL, -s specifies a path to a CA public key file used to revoke
             certificates directly by key ID or serial number.  See the KEY REVOCATION LISTS sec‐
             tion for details.

     -T output_file
             Test DH group exchange candidate primes (generated using the -G option) for safety.

     -t dsa | ecdsa | ed25519 | rsa | rsa1
             Specifies the type of key to create.  The possible values are “rsa1” for protocol
             version 1 and “dsa”, “ecdsa”, “ed25519”, or “rsa” for protocol version 2.

     -u      Update a KRL.  When specified with -k, keys listed via the command line are added to
             the existing KRL rather than a new KRL being created.

     -V validity_interval
             Specify a validity interval when signing a certificate.  A validity interval may
             consist of a single time, indicating that the certificate is valid beginning now and
             expiring at that time, or may consist of two times separated by a colon to indicate
             an explicit time interval.  The start time may be specified as a date in YYYYMMDD
             format, a time in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format or a relative time (to the current time)
             consisting of a minus sign followed by a relative time in the format described in
             the TIME FORMATS section of sshd_config(5).  The end time may be specified as a
             YYYYMMDD date, a YYYYMMDDHHMMSS time or a relative time starting with a plus charac‐
             ter.

             For example: “+52w1d” (valid from now to 52 weeks and one day from now), “-4w:+4w”
             (valid from four weeks ago to four weeks from now), “20100101123000:20110101123000”
             (valid from 12:30 PM, January 1st, 2010 to 12:30 PM, January 1st, 2011),
             “-1d:20110101” (valid from yesterday to midnight, January 1st, 2011).

     -v      Verbose mode.  Causes ssh-keygen to print debugging messages about its progress.
             This is helpful for debugging moduli generation.  Multiple -v options increase the
             verbosity.  The maximum is 3.

     -W generator
             Specify desired generator when testing candidate moduli for DH-GEX.

     -y      This option will read a private OpenSSH format file and print an OpenSSH public key
             to stdout.

     -z serial_number
             Specifies a serial number to be embedded in the certificate to distinguish this cer‐
             tificate from others from the same CA.  The default serial number is zero.

             When generating a KRL, the -z flag is used to specify a KRL version number.

MODULI GENERATION
     ssh-keygen may be used to generate groups for the Diffie-Hellman Group Exchange (DH-GEX)
     protocol.  Generating these groups is a two-step process: first, candidate primes are gener‐
     ated using a fast, but memory intensive process.  These candidate primes are then tested for
     suitability (a CPU-intensive process).

     Generation of primes is performed using the -G option.  The desired length of the primes may
     be specified by the -b option.  For example:

           # ssh-keygen -G moduli-2048.candidates -b 2048

     By default, the search for primes begins at a random point in the desired length range.
     This may be overridden using the -S option, which specifies a different start point (in
     hex).

     Once a set of candidates have been generated, they must be screened for suitability.  This
     may be performed using the -T option.  In this mode ssh-keygen will read candidates from
     standard input (or a file specified using the -f option).  For example:

           # ssh-keygen -T moduli-2048 -f moduli-2048.candidates

     By default, each candidate will be subjected to 100 primality tests.  This may be overridden
     using the -a option.  The DH generator value will be chosen automatically for the prime
     under consideration.  If a specific generator is desired, it may be requested using the -W
     option.  Valid generator values are 2, 3, and 5.

     Screened DH groups may be installed in /etc/ssh/moduli.  It is important that this file con‐
     tains moduli of a range of bit lengths and that both ends of a connection share common mod‐
     uli.

CERTIFICATES
     ssh-keygen supports signing of keys to produce certificates that may be used for user or
     host authentication.  Certificates consist of a public key, some identity information, zero
     or more principal (user or host) names and a set of options that are signed by a Certifica‐
     tion Authority (CA) key.  Clients or servers may then trust only the CA key and verify its
     signature on a certificate rather than trusting many user/host keys.  Note that OpenSSH cer‐
     tificates are a different, and much simpler, format to the X.509 certificates used in
     ssl(8).

     ssh-keygen supports two types of certificates: user and host.  User certificates authenti‐
     cate users to servers, whereas host certificates authenticate server hosts to users.  To
     generate a user certificate:

           $ ssh-keygen -s /path/to/ca_key -I key_id /path/to/user_key.pub

     The resultant certificate will be placed in /path/to/user_key-cert.pub.  A host certificate
     requires the -h option:

           $ ssh-keygen -s /path/to/ca_key -I key_id -h /path/to/host_key.pub

     The host certificate will be output to /path/to/host_key-cert.pub.

     It is possible to sign using a CA key stored in a PKCS#11 token by providing the token
     library using -D and identifying the CA key by providing its public half as an argument to
     -s:

           $ ssh-keygen -s ca_key.pub -D libpkcs11.so -I key_id host_key.pub

     In all cases, key_id is a "key identifier" that is logged by the server when the certificate
     is used for authentication.

     Certificates may be limited to be valid for a set of principal (user/host) names.  By
     default, generated certificates are valid for all users or hosts.  To generate a certificate
     for a specified set of principals:

           $ ssh-keygen -s ca_key -I key_id -n user1,user2 user_key.pub
           $ ssh-keygen -s ca_key -I key_id -h -n host.domain user_key.pub

     Additional limitations on the validity and use of user certificates may be specified through
     certificate options.  A certificate option may disable features of the SSH session, may be
     valid only when presented from particular source addresses or may force the use of a spe‐
     cific command.  For a list of valid certificate options, see the documentation for the -O
     option above.

     Finally, certificates may be defined with a validity lifetime.  The -V option allows speci‐
     fication of certificate start and end times.  A certificate that is presented at a time out‐
     side this range will not be considered valid.  By default, certificates are valid from UNIX
     Epoch to the distant future.

     For certificates to be used for user or host authentication, the CA public key must be
     trusted by sshd(8) or ssh(1).  Please refer to those manual pages for details.

KEY REVOCATION LISTS
     ssh-keygen is able to manage OpenSSH format Key Revocation Lists (KRLs).  These binary files
     specify keys or certificates to be revoked using a compact format, taking as little as one
     bit per certificate if they are being revoked by serial number.

     KRLs may be generated using the -k flag.  This option reads one or more files from the com‐
     mand line and generates a new KRL.  The files may either contain a KRL specification (see
     below) or public keys, listed one per line.  Plain public keys are revoked by listing their
     hash or contents in the KRL and certificates revoked by serial number or key ID (if the
     serial is zero or not available).

     Revoking keys using a KRL specification offers explicit control over the types of record
     used to revoke keys and may be used to directly revoke certificates by serial number or key
     ID without having the complete original certificate on hand.  A KRL specification consists
     of lines containing one of the following directives followed by a colon and some directive-
     specific information.

     serial: serial_number[-serial_number]
             Revokes a certificate with the specified serial number.  Serial numbers are 64-bit
             values, not including zero and may be expressed in decimal, hex or octal.  If two
             serial numbers are specified separated by a hyphen, then the range of serial numbers
             including and between each is revoked.  The CA key must have been specified on the
             ssh-keygen command line using the -s option.

     id: key_id
             Revokes a certificate with the specified key ID string.  The CA key must have been
             specified on the ssh-keygen command line using the -s option.

     key: public_key
             Revokes the specified key.  If a certificate is listed, then it is revoked as a
             plain public key.

     sha1: public_key
             Revokes the specified key by its SHA1 hash.

     KRLs may be updated using the -u flag in addition to -k.  When this option is specified,
     keys listed via the command line are merged into the KRL, adding to those already there.

     It is also possible, given a KRL, to test whether it revokes a particular key (or keys).
     The -Q flag will query an existing KRL, testing each key specified on the commandline.  If
     any key listed on the command line has been revoked (or an error encountered) then
     ssh-keygen will exit with a non-zero exit status.  A zero exit status will only be returned
     if no key was revoked.

FILES
     ~/.ssh/identity
             Contains the protocol version 1 RSA authentication identity of the user.  This file
             should not be readable by anyone but the user.  It is possible to specify a
             passphrase when generating the key; that passphrase will be used to encrypt the pri‐
             vate part of this file using 3DES.  This file is not automatically accessed by
             ssh-keygen but it is offered as the default file for the private key.  ssh(1) will
             read this file when a login attempt is made.

     ~/.ssh/identity.pub
             Contains the protocol version 1 RSA public key for authentication.  The contents of
             this file should be added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on all machines where the user
             wishes to log in using RSA authentication.  There is no need to keep the contents of
             this file secret.

     ~/.ssh/id_dsa
     ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
     ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
     ~/.ssh/id_rsa
             Contains the protocol version 2 DSA, ECDSA, ED25519 or RSA authentication identity
             of the user.  This file should not be readable by anyone but the user.  It is possi‐
             ble to specify a passphrase when generating the key; that passphrase will be used to
             encrypt the private part of this file using 128-bit AES.  This file is not automati‐
             cally accessed by ssh-keygen but it is offered as the default file for the private
             key.  ssh(1) will read this file when a login attempt is made.

     ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
     ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa.pub
     ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
     ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
             Contains the protocol version 2 DSA, ECDSA, ED25519 or RSA public key for authenti‐
             cation.  The contents of this file should be added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on all
             machines where the user wishes to log in using public key authentication.  There is
             no need to keep the contents of this file secret.

     /etc/ssh/moduli
             Contains Diffie-Hellman groups used for DH-GEX.  The file format is described in
             moduli(5).

SEE ALSO
     ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), moduli(5), sshd(8)

     The Secure Shell (SSH) Public Key File Format, RFC 4716, 2006.

AUTHORS
     OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.  Aaron
     Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos, Theo de Raadt and Dug Song removed many
     bugs, re-added newer features and created OpenSSH.  Markus Friedl contributed the support
     for SSH protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.

BSD                                      November 9, 2024                                     BSD


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