For an ordinary user, how would I verify that a private key file was generated using reasonably secure algorithms? In response to things like allegedly insecure ssh-keygen defaults.
1 Answer
As RubberStamp points out, this is covered in detail in stronger encryption for SSH keys but to summarize:
Look at the words in the first line, and the next one or two.
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,(hex)
(several lines of base64)
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
(or similarly with DSA PRIVATE KEY or EC PRIVATE KEY) is the old, bad-PBKDF format.
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- # or DSA,EC
(base64 immediately)
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY----- # ditto
is the old unencrypted format, which is even worse.
-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
(several lines of base64)
-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
is the OpenSSH-specific 'new' format, which is why it says OPENSSH right there. However, this format doesn't directly show whether it's encrypted or not. The easiest way is to try reading it (either for an ssh connection, or with ssh-keygen to convert or modify it) and see if it needs a password. Alternatively, you can strip the labels and decode the base64 (conveniently, openssl base64 -d does both of these!) and look at it:
$ openssl base64 -d <se200935.clr |od -c
0000000 o p e n s s h - k e y - v 1 \0 \0
0000020 \0 \0 004 n o n e \0 \0 \0 004 n o n e [snip rest]
$ openssl base64 -d <se200935.enc |od -c
0000000 o p e n s s h - k e y - v 1 \0 \0
0000020 \0 \0 \n a e s 2 5 6 - c b c \0 \0 \0
0000040 006 b c r y p t [snip rest]
answered Jan 7, 2019 at 5:06
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So is the "new OpenSSH-specific format" considered secure or not? I don't get this from your answer unfortunately.– bersNov 26, 2019 at 10:09
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1@bers: Yes, OpenSSH 'new' format -- IF encrypted (see edit) -- uses bcrypt with sane parameters, which is a good PBKDF. It also uses good symmetric encryption, but that's not a differentiator, even OpenSSH 'old' format which is OpenSSL 'traditional' format does that. Nov 28, 2019 at 8:09
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This hex dumping answer is great. A small simplification that's easier on the eyes is to use strings instead. E.g.
openssl base64 -d < ~/.ssh/id_rsa | strings– JPvRielJan 11, 2021 at 18:29 -
grep BEGIN ~/.ssh/id_*... If it doesn't have OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY ... then you have the old format keys. .... I typically use my PGP keys through ssh-agent and let GPG handle the key management.openssl asn1parse -in -...manpage just says "Some knowledge of the ASN.1 structure is needed to interpret the output." I wouldn't know where to begin to establish within a reasonable amount of time what the KDF is, for example.