We will be creating a key using the new creation algorithm to address the issues highlighted in this article “The default OpenSSH key encryption is worse than plaintext”. To generate an SSH key, you will need to open Terminal.app found in Applications > Utilities > Terminal. For higher security, you can choose a larger key size using the -b argument on generation such as ssh-keygen -b 4096 to create a 4096-bit RSA key pair. The default key type is 2048-bit RSA which offers good security and compatibility. Most modern SSH software (such as OpenSSH since version 6.5) supports the ED25519 key type, but you may still find some software is incompatible, thus the default key type is still RSA.

The ED25519 key type using elliptic-curve signature which offers is more secure and more performant than DSA or ECDSA.

Using -t argument upon generation such as ssh-keygen -t ed25519. There are several different key types that can be selected. It is important to remember that these are your public keys only(usually denoted with ‘.pub’), you should never expose private keys. SSH Keys can be automatically added to servers during the installation process by adding your public keys to the Digital Ocean or Vultr control panel. When accessing remote server such as a Remote VPS it is recommended to use SSH with PKE(Public Key Exchange) which uses a key-pair where the public key is provided to the server and the private key in stored on your machine. SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol most often used for remote management and for file transfer often denoted as sFTP(Secure File Transfer Protocol). They increase convenience as well a security by being significantly more resistant to brute-force attacks.

SSH Keys allows you to log into your server without requiring a password. This tutorial will show you how to generate and secure SSH keys on macOS Sierra(10.12),High Sierra(10.13), and Mojave (10.14).

Default ssh for mac