Enable ed25519 SSH Keys Auth on Ubuntu 18.04

By now, you probably know you should be using keys instead of passwords. This article details how to setup password login using ED25519 instead of RSA for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Why SSH Keys Are Needed

A key is a physical (digital version of physical) access token that is harder to steal/share. We use keys in ssh servers to help increase security. Keys also make brute force attacks much more difficult.

Why ED25519 instead of RSA

ED25519 has been around for several years now, but it’s quite common for people to use older variants of RSA that have been proven to be weak. It is generally considered that an RSA key length of less than 2048 is weak (as of this writing). ED25519 is a better, faster, algorithim that uses a smaller key length to get the job done.

By upgrading to better security now, you are more prepared for future security threats.

Check the Strength of Existing Keys

To check the key length, you need to use the ssh-keygen command as follows:

$ ssh-keygen -l -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
2048 SHA256:AAAAAVVBASD/+sdfasdfsdfasdfasdfasdf user@host (RSA)

If you see RSA “1024” instead of RSA “2048” you should regenerate your keys to at least RSA 2048. Hopefully your organization will also upgrade all the way to ED25519 and fall back to RSA 2048 or RSA 4096 for compatibility.

What Could Break if you Upgrade SSH Keys

SSH Login

    Your logins could simply stop working if you do the upgrade wrong. For this reason, make sure you have local access and backup any files you edit. You can also add ED25519 and continue to use RSA as you upgrade your clients.

Incompatible SSH Key Exchanges

    In some legacy systems, you simply cannot use the updated technology. If you are doing production work on systems this old though, you have other security concerns to worry about as well!

Basics of SSH KEY on the Client

Here is a simplified overview of what the rest of the article will cover:

Generate Keys on the client
Copy the PUblic Key to Server
Use Private Key to Encrypt Login to Server
Server uses Public Key to verify

Server Setup to Use SSH Keys

Generate Keys
Specify allowed Key Exchange, and Encryption methods
Specify a bunch of other stuff while you’re at it
Test the connection

On Server, Backup SSH Settings/Keys

This assumes default locations and/or files!

$ mkdir ~/backupssh/
$ cp ~/.ssh/ ~/backupssh/ -R

On Client, Backup SSH Settings/Keys

You will have to perform these actions as root.

$ mkdir ~/backupssh/
$ cp ~/.ssh/ ~/backupssh/ -R
$ cp /etc/ssh/* ~/backupssh/ -R

Verify SSH Keys Exist on Client and Server

If they exist, they will be in the ~/.ssh/ folder most likely. It is possible for a key to exist in a different directory too. The client config for ssh would probably list their alternate location if that was the case (but it’s probably not).

$ ls -al ~/.ssh

Client Example of Cygwin SSH Key Files and Permissions

You will have similar files on whatever your client is, but this is what Cygwin on Windows looks like:

$ ls .ssh -alF
total 22
drwx------+ 1 david None    0 Dec 14 18:11 ./
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 david None    0 Dec 14 20:13 ../
-rw-------  1 david None  464 Dec 14 17:57 id_ed25519
-rw-r--r--  1 david None   97 Dec 14 17:57 id_ed25519.pub
-rw-------  1 david None 1491 Dec 14 17:57 id_rsa
-rw-r--r--  1 david None  398 Dec 14 17:57 id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r--  1 david None 6924 Dec 15 10:08 known_hosts

On Client, Generate ed25519 SSH Keys

If the keys do not exist, you’ll need to generate them. This will create a private key file (which should be guarded). You’ll need to generate the keys for your client to offer key exchange to the server. The command on the client is:

ssh-keygen -o -a 100 -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -C "david@client"

-f

    Specifies filename of the keyfile, used for specifying other than default name

-a

    number of primality test while screening DH-GEX candidates

-t

    type of key (RSA, ED25519, DSA, etc)

-C

    Comment (not used in algorithm, only used in public key)

-o

    openSSH key format instead of older PEM (needs OpenSSH 6.5+)

On Server, Make Directory and Set Permissions

$ mkdir -p ~/.ssh
$ chmod 0700 ~/.ssh

On Client, Copy Public SSH Key to Server

ssh-copy-id is the preferred way. If you cannot ssh into the machine, you probably also cannot ssh-copy-id into it.

$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub david@server -p 22
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: Source of key(s) to be installed:  "/home/david/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub"
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys

If for some reason you cannot ssh-copy-id, you can also pipe it through ssh, or simply paste the id_xxxx.pub file contents at the bottom of the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. Here is how to do it via ssh pipe:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@server "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >>  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Here is an example .pub file:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
ssh-rsa kjJKL/adfnklb230uanklQkjasdfklPjasdfn//234Qj+F. david@client

You just need to update the authorized_keys file on the server with the client .pub contents at the end of it and save it. You will need

Generate Keys on Server if They Don’t Exist

These are actual hostkey fingerprint files. We are going to remove the old ones, generate new ones, and then eventually restart sshd (not yet) to activate them.

Known Host Error

Regenerating ssh keys will cause the client to have an error message about known hosts. You simply remove the old fingerprint on your client and try again. This changes the fingerprint of the server, so the error is valid.

We are going to generate both RSA and ed25519 so we can choose great security, or fall back to lesser security for compatibility.

$ rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key -N ""
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key -N ""

Remove Small Diffie-Hellman Moduli

If you use the RSA method, we want to make sure it doesn’t do a DH handshake with a weak key, so remove any weak keys:

$ awk '$5 >= 3071' /etc/ssh/moduli > /etc/ssh/moduli.safe
mv /etc/ssh/moduli.safe /etc/ssh/moduli

On Server, Disable DSA and ECDSA HostKeys

We are going to comment out dsa and ecdsa as both are not good for security.

$ vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

On Server, Enable ed25519 HostKey

In the same sshd_config file we will enable rsa and ed25519 for hostkey

$ vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key

Example SSHD_CONFIG File

Here is our final config and the references we used to build it. Do not copy and paste this config, it will not work for you. Understand what each section does!

$ cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config
#https://stribika.github.io/2015/01/04/secure-secure-shell.html
#https://www.lowendguide.com/3/security/how-to-harden-and-secure-ssh-for-improved-security/
#https://www.rackaid.com/blog/how-to-harden-or-secure-ssh-for-improved-security/
#https://research.kudelskisecurity.com/2013/11/28/openssh-hardening-for-cloud-machine-part-1/
#https://linux.die.net/man/5/sshd_config

# clean up noise on logs
Port 22

# Best Practice, Proto 2 only
Protocol 2

# Enforce file permissions of user configs
StrictModes yes

# For SSH session multiplexing only
MaxSessions 50

# Depreciated, login then startup process, separate privs
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes

# Max time you have to actually login before disconnect
LoginGraceTime 30

# max unauthed startup of ssh
MaxStartups 2

# not using X11 forwards, but user can still use their own forwarder
X11Forwarding no
X11DisplayOffset 10

# other forwarding (if you use ssh tunnel don't disable this)
#AllowTcpForwarding no
#GatewayPorts no
#PermitTunnel no

# hostkeys, aka "fingerprint", Server authenticity
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key

# Depreciated though
KeyRegenerationInterval 3600

# who can login, better to use AllowedGroups, but this works
AllowUsers root david

# How they login
PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes
PermitRootLogin without-password
PermitRootLogin yes

# if PAM yes, only root can login, and disable challenge
UsePAM yes
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

# Logging, MaxAuth if > 1 fails, logs
SyslogFacility AUTH
LogLevel VERBOSE
MaxAuthTries 2

# Rhosts
IgnoreRhosts yes
HostbasedAuthentication no

# system sends keepalive to other side, death is noticed, prevents ghosts
TCPKeepAlive yes

# Banner and info to user
Banner /etc/issue.net
PrintLastLog yes
PrintMotd no

# do not foward local settings, server wide
AcceptEnv LANG LC_*

# allow sftp
Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server

# If not contact from client, disconnect them
ClientAliveInterval 30
ClientAliveCountMax 3

# ipv4 only
AddressFamily inet

# Key Exchange Algos for initial encryption
# curve is better, but keep DH for WinSCP and Eclipse interop and Possibly Git Hub
KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256,curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256

# Allowed Ciphers for use after kex
# chacha20-poly1305 is preferred over aes to prevent certain types of traffic analysis
# if using aes and you want better security wrap it in a Tor hidden service
# ctr is for compatibility, but we remove 128 and force manually enable if needed later
#Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr

# Data Integrity Algos
# we really only want encrypt then MAC types, which eliminates timing channels
MACs hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com

Restart the SSH Server

WARNING!! It is advisable to have two shells running. One one shell, ssh in and edit your files. On the other shell, test login after you have done edits. It’s possible one of your changes will lock you out of SSH. Make sure you have some type of out of band management!

Once you restart ssh, you have a chance of not getting back in until you copy the backups back and figure out what was wrong.

service ssh restart

Test Key from Client to Server

After you’ve restarted the sshd server, go ahead and try to manually use the key. Later, if it’s the only key found in ~/.ssh/ it will choose it by default and the -i flag is not required.

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 david@server

Troubleshooting SSHD Key Problems

Your /etc/ssh stuff will be owned by root and readable something like what is below:

Verify Server Key Permissions

$ ls /etc/ssh/
total 552
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Dec 15 12:38 ./
drwxr-xr-x 104 root root  12288 Dec 11 06:08 ../
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 511854 Dec 15 10:00 moduli
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   1580 Feb  9  2018 ssh_config
-rw-------   1 root root   2882 Dec 15 12:04 sshd_config
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   3262 Oct 28 09:48 sshd_config.ucf-dist
-rw-------   1 root root    399 Dec 15 09:59 ssh_host_ed25519_key
-rw-r--r--   1 root root     95 Dec 15 09:59 ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
-rw-------   1 root root   3247 Dec 15 12:38 ssh_host_rsa_key
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    739 Dec 15 12:38 ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    338 Oct 28 09:52 ssh_import_id

Verify SSH Key File Permissions on Cygwin Client

Your client files will be owned by the user, and owned something like what follows (Cygwin Example):

$ ls .ssh -alF
total 22
drwx------+ 1 david None    0 Dec 14 18:11 ./
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 david None    0 Dec 14 20:13 ../
-rw-------  1 david None  464 Dec 14 17:57 id_ed25519
-rw-r--r--  1 david None   97 Dec 14 17:57 id_ed25519.pub
-rw-r--r--  1 david None 6924 Dec 15 10:08 known_hosts

Verify SSH Key File Permissions on Server

This server example has an rsa and ed25519 key as it accesses several other servers.

$ ls ~/.ssh -alF
total 24
drwx------ 2 david david 4096 Dec 14 15:51 ./
drwx------ 7 david david 4096 Dec 10 20:40 ../
-rw------- 1 david david  397 Mar 30  2018 authorized_keys
-rw------- 1 david david  464 Dec 14 17:57 id_ed25519
-rw-r--r-- 1 david david   97 Dec 14 17:57 id_ed25519.pub
-rw------- 1 david david 1766 Mar 24  2015 id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 david david  395 Mar 24  2015 id_rsa.pub
-rw------- 1 david david 1332 Dec 10 20:11 known_hosts

Troubleshoot SSH Service

$ systemctl status ssh.service
● ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ssh.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2018-12-15 12:04:42 CST; 3s ago
  Process: 23167 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/sshd -t (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 23169 (sshd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ssh.service
           └─23169 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

Dec 15 12:04:42 server systemd[1]: Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server...
Dec 15 12:04:42 server sshd[23169]: /etc/ssh/sshd_config line 20: Deprecated option UsePrivilegeSeparation
Dec 15 12:04:42 server sshd[23169]: /etc/ssh/sshd_config line 41: Deprecated option KeyRegenerationInterval
Dec 15 12:04:42 server sshd[23169]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
Dec 15 12:04:42 server systemd[1]: Started OpenBSD Secure Shell server.

Debug Your SSH Connection

This is a snippet of code with the important parts shown from a client connecting to the server. The logs are showing on the client screen.

ssh protocol
key exchange and encryption info: algorithm, cipher, MACs, etc
server, port

-vvv gives even more info and might be worth looking at if you cannot login.

$ ssh david@server -p 22 -v
OpenSSH_7.5p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2k  26 Jan 2017
debug1: Connecting to server [5.5.5.5] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/david/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: kex: algorithm: curve25519-sha256
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ssh-ed25519
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com MAC:  compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com MAC:  compression: none
debug1: Server host key: ssh-ed25519 SHA256:...
debug1: Host '[server]:22' is known and matches the ED25519 host key.
debug1: kex_input_ext_info: server-sig-algs=<ssh-ed25519,ssh-rsa,rsa-sha2-256,rsa-sha2-512,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521>

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering ED25519 public key: /home/david/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-ed25519 blen 51
Enter passphrase for key '/home/david/.ssh/id_ed25519':
ssh-ed25519,ssh-rsa,rsa-sha2-256,rsa-sha2-512,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521

Further Secure Your SSH Connection

You will want to follow standard OS hardening guides and use a Firewall to Protect SSH. This article focused on using ed25519 and stronger types of RSA encryption than what we are seeing most people use.

Last updated on 15 Dec 2018
Published on 15 Dec 2018
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