Home / ubuntu / Questions / 113643
Accepted
nixnotwin
Asked: 2012-03-17 19:41:37 +0800 CST

Enabling passphrase on an already existing private key

  • 772

I already have a ssh private key without a passphrase. As I have started to use it to login to a few critical and secure systems, I need to use a passphrase on my RSA private key. How can I enable passphrase on an already existing private key? Also I want to know how to backup the private key before I enable passphrase, in case I mess up or forget the passphrase (only for some days until I can commit the passphrase to my memory).

command-line ssh

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You could use the -p option to ssh-keygen:

    ssh-keygen -p -f /path-to/key-file

    It will prompt for old and new passphrase. It will also prompt for keyfile (with suggestion) if you do not provide -f key-file option.

    • 25