1) Download (if you do not already have it) the PuTTY Key Generator (PuTTYgen) application by going here or here. 2) Open PuTTYgen. 3) Click Conversions, then click import key. 4) Locate your key file, then click open. You can now save your key as a PPK file by clicking the Save private key button. PuTTY's author opted for simplicity so the public and private keys which make up the underlying security used by putty/ssh 2 key authentication are stored in a single proprietary.ppk file. Typically these keys are maintained as a 2 separate files by ssh. Open Puttygen and click on Load in the Actions section. Then, select your PPK file. Your key has been imported. Then, go to the Conversions menu and select Export OpenSSH key.
The PuTTYgen program is part of PuTTY, an open source networking client for the Windows platform.
To download PuTTY or PuTTYgen, go to http://www.putty.org/ and click the You can download PuTTY here link.
As the key is being generated, move the mouse around the blank area as directed.
Note:
While a passphrase is not required, you should specify one as a security measure to protect the private key from unauthorized use. When you specify a passphrase, a user must enter the passphrase every time the private key is used.
.ppk (PuTTY private key).Note:
The.ppk file extension indicates that the private key is in PuTTY's proprietary format. You must use a key of this format when using PuTTY as your SSH client. It cannot be used with other SSH client tools. Refer to the PuTTY documentation to convert a private key in this format to a different format. Make sure you select all the characters, not just the ones you can see in the narrow window. If a scroll bar is next to the characters, you aren't seeing all the characters.
.pub extension to indicate that the file contains a public key.ssh utility on Linux), export the private key:.ppk format, using an extension such as .openssh to indicate the file's content.