1

Is it possible for an ssh user to generate symmetric key used to encrypt a session? I have read about asymmetric key generation using ssh-keygen. Is something similar available?

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    Any user can generate ssh keys, if ssh-keygen is accessible. Being connected through ssh is not important.
    – nex84
    Mar 16, 2016 at 11:22
  • ssh-keygen is used to generate asymmetric keys. I cant find any reference where it is used to generate symmetric key.
    – nid_kurup
    Mar 16, 2016 at 12:06

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

No, ssh-keygen doesn't do that. It only generates authentication keys.

However, all SSH sessions are already encrypted. The SSH client automatically creates a symmetric key during the "kex" or "key exchange" stage using DH or ECDH, and uses it encrypt the whole session. (In fact, you cannot even turn it off.) So there's no reason to generate such keys manually.

Improve this answer
2
  • So would that mean i cannot use any external methods to generate session keys ?
    – nid_kurup
    Mar 16, 2016 at 13:26
  • No, you cannot. Why would you need to?
    – u1686_grawity
    Mar 16, 2016 at 14:05

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .