Convert Amazon .pem key to Putty .ppk key Linux

Question

I have generated and downloaded a private .pem key from AWS. However, to use Putty in order to connect to the virtual machine, I must have that key in .ppk format. The process of conversion is detailed in roughly 20 lines here:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/get-set-up-for-amazon-ec2.html#prepare-for-putty

I am using Linux Mint (an Ubuntu distro) and I know I can use puttygen in the terminal. However, I have no idea how to use this tool, nor how to configure the needed parameters. When I type puttygen --help I get

PuTTYgen unidentified build, Aug  7 2013 12:24:58
Usage: puttygen ( keyfile | -t type [ -b bits ] )
                [ -C comment ] [ -P ] [ -q ]
                [ -o output-keyfile ] [ -O type | -l | -L | -p ]
  -t    specify key type when generating (rsa, dsa, rsa1)
  -b    specify number of bits when generating key
  -C    change or specify key comment
  -P    change key passphrase
  -q    quiet: do not display progress bar
  -O    specify output type:
           private             output PuTTY private key format
           private-openssh     export OpenSSH private key
           private-sshcom      export ssh.com private key
           public              standard / ssh.com public key
           public-openssh      OpenSSH public key
           fingerprint         output the key fingerprint
  -o    specify output file
  -l    equivalent to `-O fingerprint'
  -L    equivalent to `-O public-openssh'
  -p    equivalent to `-O public'

But I have no idea whatsoever on how to do what the website tells me to do and all my tentatives failed so far.

How do I do what the website tells me to do, using puttygen on the terminal?

Related: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/74545/what-difference-between-openssh-key-and-putty-key/74560#74560 — slm, Feb 21 '14 at 17:50

score 71 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

71

Using the GUI

See this SO Q&A on how to do exactly what you want, titled: Convert PEM to PPK file format.

excerpt

Download your .pem from AWS
Open PuTTYgen, select Type of key to generate as: SSH-2 RSA
Click "Load" on the right side about 3/4 down
Set the file type to *.*
Browse to, and Open your .pem file
PuTTY will auto-detect everything it needs, and you just need to click "Save private key" and you can save your ppk key for use with PuTTY

Using the command line

If on the other hand you'd like to convert a .pem to .ppk file via the command line tool puttygen, I did come across this solution on SO in this Q&A titled:

How to convert SSH keypairs generated using PuttyGen(Windows) into key-pairs used by ssh-agent and KeyChain(Linux).

excerpt

$ puttygen keyfile.pem -O private -o avdev.ppk

For the public key:

$ puttygen keyfile.pem -L

References

Converting Your Private Key (Putty)

edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

Community

1

answered Feb 21 '14 at 17:54

slm

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steps 2 to 6 also work for other private key file types (e.g. resulting file from a Git Bash ssh-keygen command), thanks! – AtAFork Sep 23 '16 at 00:06
doesn't work anymore from the command line – Aryeh Beitz Mar 29 '17 at 16:00
Any thoughts on how this would work on OSX, PuTTYgen isn't available – Qasim Jun 21 '17 at 10:51
If you want to add a password/passphrase to the private key, just add `-P`. E.g. `puttygen k.pem -PO private -o k.ppk`. – CPHPython Nov 11 '18 at 10:52
For me it worked from command line! – achasinh Apr 23 '21 at 12:47
Of course putty-gen does not have a GUI on Linux. Be aware also that it is less tolerant of stray whitespace. – mckenzm Oct 14 '22 at 05:20

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 21 '14 at 16:37

15

If you are using GNU/Linux, you don't have to use Putty. That part of the tutorial is geared towards Windows users.

Just set your .pem file permissions to r-- by doing chmod 400 mykey.pem then you can pass it straight to ssh :

ssh -i mykey.pem [email protected]

answered Feb 21 '14 at 16:37

François Feugeas

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2
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The reason I am trying to use putty is so I can follow the instructions in this [plex tutorial](http://infoliser.com/how-to-install-plex-media-server-on-a-centos-6-x-server-and-enable-internet-access-using-ssh-tunneling-with-putty-and-firefox/). If there are other ways of doing it, then please feel free to explain. – Flame_Phoenix Feb 21 '14 at 16:47
Your Plex Media server is on the AWS machine and you're trying to tunnel to it from your Mint workstation, am I getting this right ? You should open another question explaining this, but there are already many questions explaining how to do SSH tunneling. – François Feugeas Feb 21 '14 at 16:57
1

By using the command that you mentioned i was able to login in to the remote AWS instance. I actually wanted to transfer files i used the command (just in case it helps someone) `sftp -oIdentityFile=mykey.pem user@` ... thanx your post helped me solve the problem i was having for more than 5 hours. – Subham Tripathi Jan 06 '15 at 09:25

thrinadhn · Answer 3 · 2019-08-07T09:05:30.933

0

use the below command its worked for me in ubuntu

puttygen /home/abc/Downloads/dockerkey1.pem -o home/abc/Downloads/dockerkey1.ppk -O private

Example

puttygen pemKey.pem -o ppkKey.ppk -O private

edited Aug 07 '19 at 09:05

answered Aug 07 '19 at 08:50

thrinadhn

101
1

This is already described in the accepted answer. You don’t need to use `sudo` for this, if your current user has write permission in the output directory. – Stephen Kitt Aug 07 '19 at 08:59
Thanks For your Suggestion @Stephen kitt – thrinadhn Aug 07 '19 at 09:05

Convert Amazon .pem key to Putty .ppk key Linux

3 Answers3

Using the GUI

Using the command line

References

Linked

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