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WinSCP SFTP into a server as a service user by key

05 Mar 2022 🔖 linux tutorials
💬 EN

Table of Contents

From paper notes I’d like to throw away.

Server-side prerequisites

Someone who can already get into the server and edit the /home/service_username/.ssh/authorized_keys file needs to put the contents of my public key into the file.

Appending it at the end is fine if it’s not already in there.

Making a key

If I don’t have a public-private keypair, I can make one on any Linux system (including the little mini-Linux-like environment of the “Git Bash” terminal that comes with Windows installations of Git) by running an ssh-keygen command.

  • Go ahead and accept its default filename pattern (it will make a file called id_rsa for the private key & id_rsa.pub for the public key file)
  • There’s an option to add a passphrase. I like to do this, because even if someone sits down at my computer, they can’t just start logging into servers as me via key without also knowing the password I added to that key.

I’m also going to need to have a “PuTTy”-formatted copy of the private key, so I need to:

  • Open WinSCP and find Tools > Run PuttyGen in the lower left of the Login popup.
  • Click the Load button and choose an existing Linux-style private key file.
  • Click Save private key and give it a .ppk extension.

Desktop-side

  • Open WINSCP.
  • Set up File protocol as SFTP.
  • Enter the server’s Host name and Port.
  • Enter a User name of service_username.
  • Leave Password blank.
  • Click the Advanced button under the password box.
  • Click Authentication at left, under the SSH navigation grouping.
  • In Private key file, choose the appropriate .ppk file ffrom my hard drive using the triple-dot button.
  • Click OK to return to the main Login popup in WinSCP.

Now I should be able to click Save if I plan to log into this server as service_username a lot, and click Login to SFTP into it as service_username.

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