Private Key Conversion Technique
Openssh PEM to Putty PPK file
A primary security feature offered by most of the cloud providers is Secured Shell access to virtual instances using a Key Pair. SSH (Secured Shell) access provides an authenticated access to the virtual instances hosted on cloud environment. To establish a ssh access, users would need to create a key pair. A key pair can be created using third party tools of your choice like openssh, puttygen, etc.
To establish a successful SSH connection with their instance, users should have the following details:
1. Public IP of the virtual instance
2. Allow inbound traffic through PORT 22 (SSH Access)
3. Private key to allow secure connection to the virtual instance
I have seen many users stranded clueless when the private key is refused by the servers while accessing the instance. The primary reason could be the extension of the private key and the environment from which the instance is being accessed.
Private key extensions are important while accessing your virtual instance from different types of environment like Windows, Linux/Unix machines. There are two common private key extensions:
1. OpenSSH key pairs are .PEM extensions
2. Puttygen key pairs are .PPK extensions
All the keys are RSA compliant and can be converted to either format. Puttgen includes key conversion tool that would allow users to import existing .PEM key to .PPK key. The below scheenshot would provide details on the key conversion that is neccessary
The conversion would allow you to use the same key when you are accessing your virtual instance from a Windows based desktop/putty interface or Openssh access from Linux servers. Depending on the cloud providers, their are also options to update/modify the ssh key pair for an instance as an outcome of a key corruption.
Hope this article has been helpful. Leave your suggestions and comments on the article below.
