Unable to find the .ssh/authorized_keys file on SFTP server

Question

Hi, I am unable to find the .ssh/authorized_keys file on SFTP server. I have generated the Private and public key pair but not sure where and in which format I should store it, so that server will authenticate the client. Please help.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I assume you are using the OpenSSH server.

The .ssh/authorized_keys file should be located in home direcotry of user under which you are connecting to the SSH server. So simply log in to this server under this user and edit the file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. If the file (or directory) does not exist, create it.

The proper key format can be created e.g. using the KeyGenerator.exe (part of Rebex SFTP samples). You can either generate the key pair there or to load an existing key there. Then you can copy the key text directly from the KeyGenerator.exe window to the .ssh/authorized_keys file.