How to Generate SSH Keys Using MobaXterm

SSH keys are crucial for establishing secure connections between clients and servers. In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps to generate SSH keys using MobaXterm, a popular terminal emulator and SSH client for Windows.

1. Launch MobaXterm

First, open the MobaXterm application on your Windows machine.

2. Access the SSH Key Generator

• Go to the top menu and click on the "Tools" menu.

• Select "MobaKeyGen (SSH key generator)" from the dropdown. This will open the SSH key generator tool.

3. Generate a New Key

• In the MobaKeyGen window, select the type of key you want to generate. We recommend using RSA.

• Click the "Generate" button.

• Move your mouse around the blank area in the window to generate randomness and create the key.

• Change the Key comment to your mail ID/ username e.g. "s123456789@gmail.com", this username "s123456789" can be used to establish a session in Mobaxterm using the saved private key file.

4. Save the Generated Key

• Once the key is generated, you will see the public key in the text box.

• Click on the "Save public key" button to save the public key to a file.

• Click on the "Save private key" button to save the private key to a file. You can optionally provide a passphrase for additional security.

5. Copy the Public Key

You can copy the public key directly from the text box if you need to paste it into a server’s authorized_keys file or a cloud service like GCP.