dropbearkey1

Usage

Overview

dropbearkey generates a RSA, DSS, ECDSA, or Ed25519 format SSH private key, and saves it to a file for the use with the Dropbear client or server. Note that some SSH implementations use the term “DSA” rather than “DSS”, they mean the same thing.

Options

-t type

Type of key to generate. Must be one of rsa, ecdsa, ed25519, or dss.

-f file

Write the secret key to the file file. For client authentication ~/.ssh/id_dropbear is loaded by default

-s bits

Set the key size to bits bits, should be multiple of 8 (optional).

-y

Just print the publickey and fingerprint for the private key in file.

Notes

The program dropbearconvert(1) can be used to convert between Dropbear and OpenSSH key formats.

Dropbear does not support encrypted keys.

Examples

generate a host-key:

# dropbearkey -t rsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key

extract a public key suitable for authorized_keys from private key:

# dropbearkey -y -f id_rsa | grep "^ssh-rsa " >> authorized_keys