A native .NET and .NET Core library for creating SSH RSA keys suitable for use with SSH clients and Git+SSH authentication
Get Started
$ dotnet add package SshKeyGeneratorReadme
DotNet Core SSH KeyGen
After searching around for a solution to creating SSH keys using C# and dotnet core I came across the following stackoverflow posts which explain how to convert from RSACryptoServiceProvider to values suitable for use with ssh.
Supported Platforms
- .NET 4.5 (Desktop / Server)
- .NET Standard 2.0
- .NET Standard 2.1
- .NET 5.0
- .NET 6.0
Installation
SshKeyGenerator is a library for .NET and is available on NuGet:
Install-Package SshKeyGenerator
or
dotnet add package SshKeyGenerator
Usage Example
var keygen = new SshKeyGenerator.SshKeyGenerator(2048);
var privateKey = keygen.ToPrivateKey();
Console.WriteLine(privateKey);
var publicSshKey = keygen.ToRfcPublicKey();
Console.WriteLine(publicSshKey);
var publicSshKeyWithComment = keygen.ToRfcPublicKey("user@domain.com");
Console.WriteLine(publicSshKeyWithComment);
Sample Output
keygen.ToPrivateKey()
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEowIBAAKCAQEAs1O/9F2XlZVaVWEUYfflxx0wDG9FE09hQF2wngA6EemHpe6I
hvdwvQ7obrZ85jSYdBxBRjNAYF3T9+wU+8w6m4qZCVYvqqRjszN8j3VwUBLzWilt
...
wDGzJIkmbhANi+252pH6PAuWjZPfz8COGA6QPPH0/khpHPj1LY4mi5Ubi3YT1uRo
dOGttjtkj9fLX5IQ81G9HR0MdT1Gd4fPenYPOUCgCPB5adpT1BB+
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
keygen.ToRfcPublicKey()
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCzU7/0XZeVlVpVYRRh9
...
+ohFsbcbAMcfLWGUdouyHvLvF21G0z50z2i2CrU7WW4WdrGGfxhU3TeRTXd7Skwk/K7iBBn3oc/xct generated-key
keygen.ToRfcPublicKey("user@domain.com")
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCzU7/0XZeVlVpVYRRh9
...
+ohFsbcbAMcfLWGUdouyHvLvF21G0z50z2i2CrU7WW4WdrGGfxhU3TeRTXd7Skwk/K7iBBn3oc/xct user@domain.com
Export Methods
There are three methods which can be used to export SSH key data for use by other libraries such as FxSsh:
- byte[] ToBlobs : Export as Blobs
- string ToB64Blob : Export blobs as base64 string
- string ToXml : Export as XML string
Export methods usage:
// Create a new instance
var keygen = new SshKeyGenerator.SshKeyGenerator(4096);
// Get Base64 encoded keys with private key
var base64Keys = keygen.ToB64Blob(true);
// Use in a SSH server. e.g. FxSsh
var server = new SshServer();
server.AddHostKey("ssh-rsa", base64Keys);
References
- Exporting Private Key: https://stackoverflow.com/a/23739932
- Exporting Public Key: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25591659
- Exporting Public Key in RFC4716 Format: https://stackoverflow.com/a/47917364
Contributors
Thanks to the following contributors for their assistance with this library.