Generate ssh key linux

If you manage Linux servers, you‘ve probably used SSH many times before. SSH (Secure Shell) is the de facto standard for securely accessing Unix-like systems, replacing insecure protocols like Telnet.

SSH usage is ubiquitous – from remote server administration to CI/CD automation, Git operations, and more.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll walk through step-by-step how to generate and manage SSH keys on Ubuntu 22.04.

By the end, you‘ll understand the core foundations of SSH key-based authentication and have the practical skills to implement it in your infrastructure.

Ubuntu ssh key location

Let‘s get started!

A Brief History of SSH

To appreciate the motivation behind SSH key pairs, we should first understand the origins of SSH. The protocol was created in 1995 as a successor to earlier insecure remote shells like Berkeley rlogin/rsh.

SSH was designed by Tatu Ylönen, who released it as freeware due to the lack of secure remote access tools.

It quickly became widely adopted on Linux and UNIX systems. In 2000, SSH was standardized in a series of RFC documents (RFC 4251-4254

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