Public/private key SSH authentication

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  • #454
    Nox Metus
    Participant

    I just downloaded a trial version and started trying. It seems like the first thing I have to do is to establish a SSH connection to a remote PC. The connection setup dialog is very confusing, I don’t understand it. I thought that in order to establish a connection to a remote host a SSH client needs a private key, the public key is what is stored at the server.
    [attachment=0:1vu12mco]new-016.png[/attachment:1vu12mco]
    Why the dialog asks for a public instead of a private key?

    Anyway, I tried a public key, I tried a private key, nothing works. Can it authenticate using PuTTY authentication agent, like WinSCP and PuTTY do?

    It seems like I’m stuck at the very start.

    #2127
    support
    Keymaster

    Hi,

    You are correct about private and public keys. VisualGDB mentions the public key as the term that describes the authentication process is “public key authentication”. We will consider making the wording less confusing here.
    If you have already setup the public key authentication with PuTTY, you need to convert its key to the OpenSSH format and specify it in the “OpenSSH key from file” field.

    It would be easier, however, to select “Password” and enable “Setup public key authentication”. VisualGDB will authenticate for the first time using the password, generate and save the keys, add the public key to the key list on the server and use the private key for authentication from now on.

    #2124
    Nox Metus
    Participant

    Thank you! I’ll try it on Monday.

    @bazis wrote:

    It would be easier, however, to select “Password” and enable “Setup public key authentication”. VisualGDB will authenticate for the first time using the password, generate and save the keys, add the public key to the key list on the server and use the private key for authentication from now on.

    First, password authentication is disabled on the server. Second, I don’t want VisualGDB to make changes at the server on my behalf (adding public keys).

    #2125
    Nox Metus
    Participant

    Ok, I converted the PuTTY private key to an OpenSSH private key. I chose “OpenSSH key from file” and pointed to the file with the private key. I pressed “Connect”. Here is what I saw as the result:
    [attachment=0:3evl038f]new-017.png[/attachment:3evl038f]

    #2126
    support
    Keymaster

    It looks like the converted private key has invalid format. Please try generating a keypair using OpenSSH tools (e.g. from cygwin package or directly on Linux) and use the file generated by it.
    If that works, please compare the format of that key and the key you have tried before.

    #2128
    Nox Metus
    Participant

    Format was alright. It turned out that VisualGDB doesn’t support password protected private keys.

    #2129
    ket
    Participant

    Yes, currently password protected private keys are not supported as we thought that there was no demand for such a feature. If it is a vital point to you, we could add support for it and release a quick patch.

    #2130
    Nox Metus
    Participant

    Thank you for the offer. However, I’m still evaluating. If I decide to buy later, then it would be very nice.

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