Introduction

By default your box uses the SSH keys provided by Vagrant to secure authentication/logins. If you would like to optimize login protection you can follow these instructions to replace the Vagrant keys with your own personal key pair.

1. Generate Your Key Pair

Run the following commands on your local machine to generate a 2048 bit RSA key pair:

Note: using a passphrase is optional but we strongly recommend using one!

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C cakebox-authentication
# enter file name 'cakebox_rsa'
# enter a passphrase

If things went well you should now have two files:

  • a private key named cakebox_rsa
  • a public key named cakebox_rsa.pub

2. Configure Your Box

Configure your box to use the new keys for all SSH authentication requests by updating the security section in your Cakebox.yaml to resemble:

security:
  box_public_key: ~/.ssh/cakebox_rsa.pub
  box_private_key: ~/.ssh/cakebox_rsa

3. Enable Your Key Pair

Run the following command on your local machine to effectuate the new key pair:

vagrant reload --provision

If things went well you should:

  • see the following message during startup: Restricting Cakebox SSH logins
  • be asked for your passphrase when logging in (if you chose to use a passprhrase in step 1)

Putty Users (Windows)

Putty does not support the OpenSSH format. Therefore Putty users MUST create a third key in .ppk format named cakebox_rsa.ppk. This is done by converting the private key generated in step 2.

  1. Start Puttygen
  2. Press Load to open the File Explorer
  3. Change the dropdown to 'All files' and select your cakebox_rsa private key
  4. Enter the passphrase used when creating the key pair
  5. Change the Key Comment field to cakebox-authentication
  6. Save the key as ~/.ssh/cakebox_rsa.ppk by pressing Save Private Key

You now have a .ppk key to be used in your Putty cakebox connection properties.