How to connect to linux server using ssh with private key from PowerShell?

Question

I have generated an ssh key pair using puttygen and can successfully connect to my CentOS server with my private key from putty on my Windows 10 workstation:

I want to connect to the server from Windows PowerShell and have loaded the Posh-SSH module with Install-Module posh-ssh

I have tried to create a new ssh session with:

$Credential = Get-Credential
$KeyFile = 'C:\Users\mark\Documents\ssh\privkey.ppk'
$sesh = New-SSHSession -ComputerName neon.localdomain -Credential $credential -Keyfile $KeyFile

I put in root and blank password for Get-Credential but I get this error:

New-SSHSession : Invalid private key file.

I tried to convert the privkey file to a string by reading it and converting to base64 encoded but I get the same error:

$privkeyString = Get-Content $KeyFile
$Bytes = [Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($privkeyString))
$sesh = New-SSHSession -ComputerName neon.localdomain -Credential $credential -KeyString $Bytes

I also tried this but get the same error:

$sesh = New-SSHSession -ComputerName neon.localdomain -Credential $credential -KeyString $privkeystring

Any ideas on how to connect to a linux server using PowerShell with a private key file?

This question might be a good candidate for canonical answer on similar questions like stackoverflow.com/questions/66539007 or stackoverflow.com/questions/31244250 . — Vesper
– Vesper, Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 13:29

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-24 12:45:19Z

12

New-SSHSession doesn't recognize PuTTY's key format (unfortunately neither the Gallery nor the project page mention this, but I found it in a PowerShellMagazine article). You need the private key in the OpenSSH format. You can convert the private key with PuTTYgen:

Click File → Load private key.
Enter the passphrase if the key is password-protected.
Click Conversions → Export OpenSSH key.
Enter the filename for the exported key (do NOT overwrite the PPK file) and click Save.
Exit PuTTYgen.

Run New-SSHSession with the new key file:

$computer = 'neon.localdomain'
$username = 'foo'
$keyfile  = 'C:\path\to\priv_openssh.key'

$sess = New-SSHSession -Computer $computer -Credential $username -Keyfile $keyfile

answered Sep 24, 2017 at 12:45

Ansgar Wiechers

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Goddard · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-10 13:21:39Z

6

Same method can now be used as on Linux.

ssh [email protected] -p 22 -i C:\Users\user.ssh\private_key_id_rsa

answered Jul 10, 2019 at 13:21

Goddard

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