I did successful yestday as Porter's doc:


1. Create private/pub key on AIX:
$ssh-keygen -t identity

2. Get my private key from the AIX server, found in $HOME/.ssh/identity

Put that on Windows box.

I use WinSCP to transfer private key from AIX to Windows

3. Run puttygen.exe and load the private key, save it without password as identity.ppk in a safe directory.

4.To use SFTP use Putty's "psftp" as follows:

"c:\program files\putty\psftp.exe" -i \path\to\identity.ppk user@host

Then, it shows "server refused our key" and "Server refused public key", I have to input password to login AIX.

Yesterday, I thought I was successful to use WinSCP to do it without password, today, I cannot, and it shows the same result .

I don't change any configuration on AIX and Windows.

Who know why I cannot do it today?

Thanks a lot!

Did you put the public key in $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys?

Do the files have -wr------ access rights?

I thought the flags would be "ssh-keygen -t rsa -f identity".

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -f identity
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in identity.
Your public key has been saved in identity.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
be:fe:1b:cc:ec:21:6b:d5:4d:db:75:00:99:92:8f:2d sss@server1
$ ls -l
total 16
-rw------- 1 sss staff 1675 Dec 05 13:21 identity
-rw-r--r-- 1 sss staff 397 Dec 05 13:21 identity.pub

It shows the same result, server refused our key

Have you put the public key in $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys of the server you are trying to connect to?

In AIX side, I only have

$ ls -l
total 16
-rw------- 1 sss staff 1675 Dec 05 13:21 identity
-rw-r--r-- 1 sss staff 397 Dec 05 13:21 identity.pub

after run the command:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -f identity

where the "$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys"? In Windows or AIX?
I want to ssh without password from windows to AIX. So, I create the private/public key on AIX side?

1. create public and private key on AIX - just as you have.

2. add the public key to $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys on the AIX box.

3. ensure the keys and authorized_keys are -rw-------

4. transfer the private key to windows - just like you have

5. use puttygen to create a putty type key identity.ppk - just like you have

So you are nearly there, but the server does *nothing* with identity and identity.pub, they are ignored. It is only interested in $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys. Similarly the ssh client on AIX is only interested in (a) $HOME/.ssh/identity and (b) $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts.

If $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys does not exist then

Thanks a lot! Success!