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Using SSH keys provide a more secure way of logging into a remote computer when compared to password authentication, and today I will walk you through how we can achieve this in 3 simple steps

For this demo I will be configuring SSH key authentication for the user account accountsguru to connect to the remote system mylinuxlab.net, accessing remotely from my local computer sraavi.

• user account: accountsguru
• local computer: sraavi
• remote system: mylinuxlab.net

Prerequisite: User accountsguru must be having an account already existing in the remote system mylinuxlab.net and authorized to access remotely.

Step1: Generate SSH public-private key pair

Logon to the local computer with the user account for which we want to create the SSH key pair, and run the following command

ssh-keygen

Below is the output generated. If you watch closely, in line 3 we are prompted to chose a directory and I accepted the default here, and in the next line we are prompted to enter a passphrase, which is to protect your private key. Passphrase adds an additional security layer because if in case a hacker got access to your private key he/she won’t be able to make any use as the private key is passphrase protected. Since we are doing a demo here I skipped the passphrase

[accountsguru@sraavi ~]$ ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/accountsguru/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/accountsguru/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/accountsguru/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
7b:54:3e:f8:33:31:8e:70:81:f1:a3:4d:e2:52:c3:0b accountsguru@sraavi
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
| . |
| . + |
| E * = . |
| + B * |
| . S = = |
| . = + + |
| . o = |
| . o |
| |
+-----------------+

From the output above, line 6 is our private key, and line 7 is the public key.

Step2: Copy the public key to the remote system

Now, copy the public key from your local computer to the remote system using the below command

ssh-copy-id accountsguru@mylinuxlab.net

Note that it will prompt to enter the password to access the remote computer, and here is how the result looks like

[accountsguru@sraavi ~]$ ssh-copy-id accountsguru@mylinuxlab.net
/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
accountsguru@mylinuxlab.net's password:
Number of key(s) added: 1

From the above two steps we’ve successfully generated key pair and configured the user account accountsguru to access remotely using SSH

Step3: Connect to the remote system using SSH

Now let’s try logging into the remote server using SSH with the following command

ssh accountsguru@mulinuxlab.net

And, here is how it looks after making a successful connection..

[accountsguru@sraavi ~]$ ssh accountsguru@mylinuxlab.net
Last login: Fri Dec 9 19:28:33 2016 from 172.110.22.205
[accountsguru@mylinuxlab ~]$

To exit the remove server you can press tilda followed by dot (~.) and usually we won’t see the characters when we type them, but the session will terminate immediately

[accountsguru@mylinuxlab ~]$ Connection to mylinuxlab.net closed.

Hope this helps! If you have any feedback or a question, please leave it in the comment section below.

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In this post, let’s learn how to use chgrp and chown commands to change group and user ownership of a directory

On a Linux server, by default, the group owner of a file or directory is the primary group of the user who created the file directory. And it is highly likely in most cases the primary group and the user share the same name

Let’s say we need to change the group and user ownership of the directory /home/chris/mars to root user, below are the steps we need to execute

Step1: Switch to root user

#switch to the root user
su - root

Note: In order to change the group owner of a file or directory, one must be the user owner of the file AND be a member of the group to which we are changing ownership or else be the root user. Also, remember that only the root user can change the user ownership of a file or directory.

Step2: Use chgrp to change the group owner and chown to change the user owner

#Using chgrp to change the group owner
chgrp root /home/chris/mars
#Using chown to change the user owner
chown root /home/chris/mars

OR
Step3: Use chown to change both group owner and user owner at the same time

#using chown to change both group and user owner at the same time
chown root:root /home/chris/mars

Here’s a bonus tip for you: The process to change group and user ownership on a file is the same as performing the commands on a directory, making our job easy!

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