You can also use Bash in the Azure Cloud Shell to connect to your VM. Recent versions of Windows 10 include OpenSSH client commands to create and use SSH keys and make SSH connections from PowerShell or a command prompt. Other key formats such as ED25519 and ECDSA are not supported. Supported SSH key formatsĪzure currently supports SSH protocol 2 (SSH-2) RSA public-private key pairs with a minimum length of 2048 bits. Your public key can be shared with anyone, but only you (or your local security infrastructure) should have access to your private key. You do not need a separate pair of keys for each VM. If the client has the private key, it's granted access to the VM.ĭepending on your organization's security policies, you can reuse a single key pair to access multiple Azure VMs and services. When you connect to your Linux VM, the VM tests the SSH client to make sure it has the correct private key. The private key remains on your local system.

The public key is placed on your Linux VM when you create the VM.

The key is private, and only given to people you trust because it can be used to unlock the door. The lock is exposed to the public, anyone with the right key can open the door. The public-private key pair is like the lock on your front door. We recommend connecting to a VM over SSH using a public-private key pair, also known as SSH keys. Although SSH itself provides an encrypted connection, using passwords with SSH still leaves the VM vulnerable to brute-force attacks. SSH is the default connection protocol for Linux VMs hosted in Azure. SSH is an encrypted connection protocol that allows secure sign-ins over unsecured connections. For a more detailed overview of SSH, see Detailed steps: Create and manage SSH keys for authentication to a Linux VM in Azure. To use SSH keys from a Linux or macOS client, see the quick steps. You can also generate and store SSH keys in the Azure portal to use when creating VMs in the portal.

This article is for Windows users who want to create and use secure shell (SSH) keys to connect to Linux virtual machines (VMs) in Azure. Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets

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