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Authentication and keys

SSH keys

SSHive can generate and keep your SSH keys: a private key is encrypted by the keychain and never written into ~/.ssh. Those managed keys can be reused in every profile, and follow iCloud.

By Lucas Russo, developer of SSHive · Updated

Generating a key

  1. Open Settings > SSH Keys.
  2. Click Generate a key.
  3. Give it a Name, for example prod-server.
  4. Choose the Type: Ed25519, RSA 4096, ECDSA.
  5. Optional: a Passphrase. SSHive keeps it encrypted, so you will not have to type it again.
  6. Click Generate: the new pair appears in your list of keys.
La génération d'une clé SSH
An SSH key being generated

Installing the key on a server

The equivalent of ssh-copy-id, without leaving SSHive.

  1. First open an SSH session to that server, with a password.
  2. In Settings > SSH Keys, on the key's row, click Install on host.
  3. Pick the open session from the list. The key is added to the server's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, without a duplicate.
  4. Then edit the profile to use that key, as below.
L'installation d'une clé publique sur un serveur
A public key being installed on a server

Copy public key puts it on the clipboard, to paste it elsewhere: GitHub, a host's control panel.

Importing a key you already have

Click Import a key, paste the private key, then Import. Formats read: OpenSSH (BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY), PEM (BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY, BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY) and PuTTY PPK version 2.

Using a key in a profile

  1. In the profile, Authentication: choose Private Key.
  2. Under SSH Key, pick one of your managed keys. Its passphrase is found automatically.
  3. Or choose Local file…, then Browse. If the key is protected, tick Key protected by a passphrase and type it.
Un serveur qui utilise une clé gérée
A server that uses a managed key

Deleting a key

The bin icon on its row. If profiles use it, SSHive says so and asks for confirmation: those connections will stop working.

Applies to SSHive 2.0.6 on Mac

See also