Generate Secret Key Command Line
Overview
- Generate Secret Key Command Line Number
- Generate Secret Key Command Line Number
- Generate Secret Key Command Line Download
- World Edit Generate Commands
- Secret Cmd Commands
- Command Line Tutorial
Public key authentication is a way of logging into an SSH/SFTP account using a cryptographic key rather than a password.
To ensure the security of your AWS account, the secret access key is accessible only during key and user creation. You must save the key (for example, in a text file) if you want to be able to access it again. If a secret key is lost, you can delete the access keys for the associated user and then create new keys. While Encrypting a File with a Password from the Command Line using OpenSSL is very useful in its own right, the real power of the OpenSSL library is its ability to support the use of public key cryptograph for encrypting or validating data in an unattended manner (where the password is not required to encrypt) is done with public keys.
If you use very strong SSH/SFTP passwords, your accounts are already safe from brute force attacks. However, using public key authentication provides many benefits when working with multiple developers. For example, with SSH keys you can
- allow multiple developers to log in as the same system user without having to share a single password between them;
- revoke a single developer's access without revoking access by other developers; and
- make it easier for a single developer to log in to many accounts without needing to manage many different passwords.
How Public Key Authentication Works
Keys come in pairs of a public key and a private key. Mac os x generate new public key. Each key pair is unique, and the two keys work together.
These two keys have a very special and beautiful mathematical property: if you have the private key, you can prove you have it without showing what it is. It's like proving you know a password without having to show someone the password.
Public key authentication works like this:
- Generate a key pair.
- Give someone (or a server) the public key.
- Later, anytime you want to authenticate, the person (or the server) asks you to prove you have the private key that corresponds to the public key.
- You prove you have the private key.
You don't have to do the math or implement the key exchange yourself. The SSH server and client programs take care of this for you.
Generate an SSH Key Pair
You should generate your key pair on your laptop, not on your server. All Mac and Linux systems include a command called ssh-keygen that will generate a new key pair.
If you're using Windows, you can generate the keys on your server. Just remember to copy your keys to your laptop and delete your private key from the server after you've generated it.
To generate an SSH key pair, run the command ssh-keygen.
It will look like this when you run it:
You'll be prompted to choose the location to store the keys. The default location is good unless you already have a key. Press Enter to choose the default location.
Next, you'll be asked to choose a password. Using a password means a password will be required to use the private key. It's a good idea to use a password on your private key.
After you choose a password, your public and private keys will be generated. There will be two different files. The one named id_rsa is your private key. The one named id_rsa.pub is your public key.
You'll also be shown a fingerprint and 'visual fingerprint' of your key. You do not need to save these.
Configure an SSH/SFTP User for Your Key
Method 1: Using ssh-copy-id
Now that you have an SSH key pair, you're ready to configure your app's system user so you can SSH or SFTP in using your private key.
To copy your public key to your server, run the following command. Be sure to replace 'x.x.x.x' with your server's IP address and SYSUSER with the name of the the system user your app belongs to.
Method 2: Manual Configuration
If you don't have the ssh-copy-id command (for example, if you are using Windows), you can instead SSH in to your server and manually create the .ssh/authorized_keys file so it contains your public key.
First, run the following commands to make create the file with the correct permissions.
Next, edit the file .ssh/authorized_keys using your preferred editor. Copy and paste your id_rsa.pub file into the file.
Log In Using Your Private Key
You can now SSH or SFTP into your server using your private key. From the command line, you can use:
If you didn't create your key in the default location, you'll need to specify the location:
If you're using a Windows SSH client, such as PuTTy, look in the configuration settings to specify the path to your private key.
Granting Access to Multiple Keys
The .ssh/authorized_keys file you created above uses a very simple format: it can contain many keys as long as you put one key on each line in the file.
If you have multiple keys (for example, one on each of your laptops) or multiple developers you need to grant access to, just follow the same instructions above using ssh-copy-id or manually editing the file to paste in additional keys, one on each line.
When you're done, the .ssh/authorized_keys file will look something like this (don't copy this, use your own public keys):
Additional Information
Retrieve Your Public Key from Your Private Key
The following command will retrieve the public key from a private key:
This can be useful, for example, if your server provider generated your SSH key for you and you were only able to download the private key portion of the key pair.
Note that you cannot retrieve the private key if you only have the public key.
Correcting Permissions on the .ssh Directory
The instructions in this article will create your server's .ssh directory and .ssh/authorized_keys file with the correct permissions. However, if you've created them yourself and need to fix permissions, you can run the following commands on your server while SSH'd in as your app's system user.
Disabling Password Authentication
NOTE: When changing anything about the way SSH is accessed(ports, authentication methods, et cetera), it is very strongly recommended to leave an active root SSH session open until everything is working as intended. This ensures you have a way to revert changes in the event something goes wrongand logins are not working properly.
As an extra security precaution, once you have set up SSH keys, you may wish to disable password authentication entirely. This will mean no users will be able to log into SSH or SFTP without SSH keys. Anyone entering a password will receive a message like:
Generate Secret Key Command Line Number
Or:
Disabling password authentication is an excellent way to improve server security. Please see our guide here for the steps to accomplish this goal.
Then, test whether you're able to log in with a password by opening a new SSH or SFTP session to the server. Passwords should not be able to be used and, if everything has been done correctly, an error will be issued when someone tries to use a password. Unless this setting is changed back to allow password authentication, no users will be able to log in without an SSH key set up.
-->This article covers how to get started working with Azure Key Vault using the Azure CLI. You can see information on:
- How to create a hardened container (a vault) in Azure
- Adding a key, secret, or certificate to the key vault
- Registering an application with Azure Active Directory
- Authorizing an application to use a key or secret
- Setting key vault advanced access policies
- Working with Hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Deleting the key vault and associated keys and secrets
- Miscellaneous Azure Cross-Platform Command-line Interface Commands
Azure Key Vault is available in most regions. For more information, see the Key Vault pricing page.
Note
This article does not include instructions on how to write the Azure application that one of the steps includes, which shows how to authorize an application to use a key or secret in the key vault.
For an overview of Azure Key Vault, see What is Azure Key Vault?)If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.
Prerequisites
To use the Azure CLI commands in this article, you must have the following items:
- A subscription to Microsoft Azure. If you don't have one, you can sign up for a free trial.
- Azure Command-Line Interface version 2.0 or later. To install the latest version, see Install the Azure CLI.
- An application that will be configured to use the key or password that you create in this article. A sample application is available from the Microsoft Download Center. For instructions, see the included Readme file.
Getting help with Azure Cross-Platform Command-Line Interface
This article assumes that you're familiar with the command-line interface (Bash, Terminal, Command prompt).
The --help or -h parameter can be used to view help for specific commands. Alternately, The Azure help [command] [options] format can also be used too. When in doubt about the parameters needed by a command, refer to help. For example, the following commands all return the same information:
You can also read the following articles to get familiar with Azure Resource Manager in Azure Cross-Platform Command-Line Interface:
How to create a hardened container (a vault) in Azure
Vaults are secured containers backed by hardware security modules. Vaults help reduce the chances of accidental loss of security information by centralizing the storage of application secrets. Key Vaults also control and log the access to anything stored in them. Azure Key Vault can handle requesting and renewing Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates, providing the features required for a robust certificate lifecycle management solution. In the next steps, you will create a vault.
Connect to your subscriptions
To sign in interactively, use the following command:
To sign in using an organizational account, you can pass in your username and password.
Generate Secret Key Command Line Number
If you have more than one subscription and need to specify which to use, type the following to see the subscriptions for your account:
Specify a subscription with the subscription parameter.
For more information about configuring Azure Cross-Platform Command-Line Interface, see Install Azure CLI.
Create a new resource group
When using Azure Resource Manager, all related resources are created inside a resource group. You can create a key vault in an existing resource group. If you want to use a new resource group, you can create a new one.
The first parameter is resource group name and the second parameter is the location. To get a list of all possible locations type:
Register the Key Vault resource provider
You may see the error 'The subscription is not registered to use namespace 'Microsoft.KeyVault' when you try to create a new key vault. If that message appears, make sure that Key Vault resource provider is registered in your subscription. This is a one-time operation for each subscription.
Create a key vault
Use the az keyvault create command to create a key vault. This script has three mandatory parameters: a resource group name, a key vault name, and the geographic location.
To create a new vault with the name ContosoKeyVault, in the resource group ContosoResourceGroup, residing in the East Asia location, type:
The output of this command shows properties of the key vault that you've created. The two most important properties are:
- name: In the example, the name is ContosoKeyVault. You'll use this name for other Key Vault commands.
- vaultUri: In the example, the URI is https://contosokeyvault.vault.azure.net. Applications that use your vault through its REST API must use this URI.
Your Azure account is now authorized to perform any operations on this key vault. As of yet, nobody else is authorized.
Adding a key, secret, or certificate to the key vault
If you want Azure Key Vault to create a software-protected key for you, use the az key create command.
If you have an existing key in a .pem file, you can upload it to Azure Key Vault. You can choose to protect the key with software or HSM. This example imports the key from the .pem file and protect it with software, using the password 'hVFkk965BuUv':
Generate Secret Key Command Line Download
You can now reference the key that you created or uploaded to Azure Key Vault, by using its URI. Use https://ContosoKeyVault.vault.azure.net/keys/ContosoFirstKey to always get the current version. Use https://[keyvault-name].vault.azure.net/keys/[keyname]/[key-unique-id] to get this specific version. For example, https://ContosoKeyVault.vault.azure.net/keys/ContosoFirstKey/cgacf4f763ar42ffb0a1gca546aygd87.
Add a secret to the vault, which is a password named SQLPassword, and that has the value of 'hVFkk965BuUv' to Azure Key Vaults.
Reference this password by using its URI. Use https://ContosoVault.vault.azure.net/secrets/SQLPassword to always get the current version, and https://[keyvault-name].vault.azure.net/secret/[secret-name]/[secret-unique-id] to get this specific version. For example, https://ContosoVault.vault.azure.net/secrets/SQLPassword/90018dbb96a84117a0d2847ef8e7189d.
Import a certificate to the vault using a .pem or .pfx.
Let's view the key, secret, or certificate that you created:
- To view your keys, type:
- To view your secrets, type:
- To view certificates, type:
Registering an application with Azure Active Directory
This step would usually be done by a developer, on a separate computer. It isn't specific to Azure Key Vault but is included here, for awareness. To complete the app registration, your account, the vault, and the application need to be in the same Azure directory.
Applications that use a key vault must authenticate by using a token from Azure Active Directory. The owner of the application must register it in Azure Active Directory first. At the end of registration, the application owner gets the following values:
- An Application ID (also known as the AAD Client ID or appID)
- An authentication key (also known as the shared secret).
World Edit Generate Commands
The application must present both these values to Azure Active Directory, to get a token. How an application is configured to get a token will depend on the application. For the Key Vault sample application, the application owner sets these values in the app.config file.
For detailed steps on registering an application with Azure Active Directory you should review the articles titled Integrating applications with Azure Active Directory, Use portal to create an Azure Active Directory application and service principal that can access resources, and Create an Azure service principal with the Azure CLI.
To register an application in Azure Active Directory:
Authorizing an application to use a key or secret
To authorize the application to access the key or secret in the vault, use the az keyvault set-policy command.
For example, if your vault name is ContosoKeyVault, the application has an appID of 8f8c4bbd-485b-45fd-98f7-ec6300b7b4ed, and you want to authorize the application to decrypt and sign with keys in your vault, use the following command:
To authorize the same application to read secrets in your vault, type the following command:
Setting key vault advanced access policies
Use az keyvault update to enable advanced policies for the key vault.
Enable Key Vault for deployment: Allows virtual machines to retrieve certificates stored as secrets from the vault.
Enable Key Vault for disk encryption: Required when using the vault for Azure Disk encryption.
Secret Cmd Commands
Enable Key Vault for template deployment: Allows Resource Manager to retrieve secrets from the vault.
Working with Hardware security modules (HSMs)
For added assurance, you can import or generate keys from hardware security modules (HSMs) that never leave the HSM boundary. The HSMs are FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated. If this requirement doesn't apply to you, skip this section and go to Delete the key vault and associated keys and secrets.
To create these HSM-protected keys, you must have a vault subscription that supports HSM-protected keys.
When you create the keyvault, add the 'sku' parameter:
You can add software-protected keys (as shown earlier) and HSM-protected keys to this vault. To create an HSM-protected key, set the Destination parameter to 'HSM':
You can use the following command to import a key from a .pem file on your computer. This command imports the key into HSMs in the Key Vault service:
The next command imports a 'bring your own key' (BYOK) package. This lets you generate your key in your local HSM, and transfer it to HSMs in the Key Vault service, without the key leaving the HSM boundary:
For more detailed instructions about how to generate this BYOK package, see How to use HSM-Protected Keys with Azure Key Vault.
Deleting the key vault and associated keys and secrets
If you no longer need the key vault and its keys or secrets, you can delete the key vault by using the az keyvault delete command:
Or, you can delete an entire Azure resource group, which includes the key vault and any other resources that you included in that group:
Miscellaneous Azure Cross-Platform Command-line Interface Commands
Other commands that you might find useful for managing Azure Key Vault.
This command lists a tabular display of all keys and selected properties:
This command displays a full list of properties for the specified key:
This command lists a tabular display of all secret names and selected properties:
Here's an example of how to remove a specific key:
Here's an example of how to remove a specific secret:
Next steps
Command Line Tutorial
For complete Azure CLI reference for key vault commands, see Key Vault CLI reference.
For programming references, see the Azure Key Vault developer's guide
For information on Azure Key Vault and HSMs, see How to use HSM-Protected Keys with Azure Key Vault.