
You can also manually paste in the key rather than using id_rsa. Assuming your private key is stored in id_rsa, you can run: ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa You can use the utility ssh-add to add keys to your local agent. All you’ll have to do is make sure your keys are added to ssh-agent and configure ssh to use forwarding. On Mac and Linux, SSH agent forwarding is built into ssh, and the ssh-agent process is launched automatically.
What is putty ssh how to#
RELATED: How to Lock Down Your SSH Server How to Enable SSH Agent Forwarding Github doesn’t care that your local machine answered the question, it just sees that it’s been answered, and lets you connect. Your local machine answers the question and sends the response (which does not include your private key) to the server, which forwards it back to Github. Usually the server would consult its own id_rsa files to answer, but instead it will forward the question to your local machine.
What is putty ssh code#
It works like this: you ask your remote server to pull some code from Github, and Github says “who are you?” to the server. This doesn’t send your private keys over the internet, not even while they’re encrypted it just lets a remote server access your local SSH agent and verify your identity. To solve this problem, you can open your local SSH agent to the remote server, allowing it to act as you while you’re connected. You want to use SSH authentication for Github, but you don’t want your private keys on that remote server, only on your machine. For example, imagine you’re connecting to a remote server, and you want to git pull some code that you’re storing on Github. SSH agent forwarding is like going another layer deeper. You’ll want to make sure your SSH server is locked down, of course. This means you’ll only need to unlock it once, and it will persist until you restart, letting you log into your servers securely without a passphrase prompt. To manage this, most SSH implementations will use an agent, which keeps your decrypted key in memory. However, this means you’ll have to enter your passphrase every time you need to use your private key, which will get annoying. So, for security, SSH will ask you for a passphrase when you generate your keys (hopefully you didn’t skip that step) and it will use that passphrase to encrypt and decrypt your private key. But, this is like storing your passwords on a sticky note-anyone can view them if they have access to it.


Your private SSH key is like a password, and is saved locally on your computer. Your public SSH key is like your username or identity, and you can share it with everybody. It’s built into ssh, and is easy to set up and use.

SSH agent forwarding allows you to use your private, local SSH key remotely without worrying about leaving confidential data on the server you’re working with.
