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Certificate Authentication

Manoj Ampalam edited this page May 31, 2018 · 3 revisions
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Setup SSHD server for certificate based user authentication

  • Generate CA keys (just like any other keys)
    • ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ca_userkeys
  • Register above key as trusted CA for sshd. Add following entry in sshd_config
    • TrustedUserCAKeys ca_userkeys.pub
    • Path above is relative to sshd binaries directory. Absolute path is recommended to avoid confusion
  • Prior to v7.7.0.0, check out #1055 for considerations while working with domain accounts.

At this point, server can accept any user certificates signed using ca_userkeys and there is no need to explicitly map user keys in authorized_keys

Signing user keys

  • sign user keys using ssh-keygen
    • ssh-keygen.exe -s ca_userkeys -I cert_identity -V -1w:+54w5d -n username id_rsa.pub
    • username should match the user to be authenticated