Setting up ssh shared keys

~/ denotes home directory)

That part is right.

public key goes on the ssh server you are connecting to. It should be listed in the .ssh/authorized_keys



Private key stays stays on the machine(s) you are connecting from.



So as an example;

On the box you are connecting to,(well call it SSHserver) lets assume you have a user named "sshserveruser"

make a directory within "sshserveruser"'s home directory named .ssh (more than likely it is there)
If it is not there you can just mkdir .ssh

On either the mac or linux box create your public and private key set.

Get the public key you just made and on the "SSHserver" add it to the authorized_keys file located within the sshserveruser/.ssh directory

You can do this by;
"cat path and_name_of your publickey >> home directory_of_sshserveruser/.ssh/authorizedkeys"

This will add the public key to authorized_keys file without overwriting anything.

Now back on the box you are going to connect FROM, (with your private key)
from terminal type

ssh -l sshserveruser@sshserver -i location of_your_privatekey


that should make your connection.



If you want to restrict access to the SSH server to key only you must modify the sshd_conf in the etc directory.

PermitRootLogin no
PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
PAMAuthenticationViaKbdInt no

But make sure your keys work first.

When you create a key pair, you will be prompted to enter a passphase. It sounds like this is what you did when you created your keys.

It is an extra layer of security in case somebody gets a hold of your private key.

There are ways to remove the passphrase but off the top of my head I do not know.

What I would do is, generate a new set. When you generate your new set you will be prompted to enter a passphrase, just press enter as this will make it so your key does not have a passphrase.

ssh is cool. By default the SSH server allows port forwarding. So, on the client side, you can add "switches" to forward ports through SSH. I use it for VNC and RDP, (Windows has copSSH so I have an SSH server on my MS box) That way everything is encrypted.

But definitely make sure to shut off PAM and clear passwords so nobody form the outside can brute force their way in... KEY ONLY!!