Question

I have been using Putty on Windows XP and used the .ppk file to connect to my Linux servers (several servers).

On the servers I have the following folder and file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

I now want to use a Mac to connect via the terminal. I have set up the remote connections to the servers manually and want to know how I can setup using the ppk file or the private/public key within it.

Please note : I already am using private/public key login from Windows so I do not need to create a new key using keygen, I just want to know how to set up now that I have the keys already. (In other words, I already have the authorized key lists on the server, and the public and private key).

Answer 1

You can ssh directly from the Terminal on Mac, but you need to use a .PEM key rather than the putty .PPK key. You can use PuttyGen on Windows to convert from .PEM to .PPK, I’m not sure about the other way around though.

You can also convert the key using putty for Mac via port or brew:

sudo port install putty

or

brew install putty

This will also install puttygen. To get puttygen to output a .PEM file:

puttygen privatekey.ppk -O private-openssh -o privatekey.pem

Once you have the key, open a terminal window and:

ssh -i privatekey.pem [e-mail]

The private key must have tight security settings otherwise SSH complains. Make sure only the user can read the key.

chmod go-rw privatekey.pem