dropbearkey - Man Page

• Generate an SSH key of [t]ype ed25519 and write it to key [f]ile: dropbearkey -t ed25519 -f path/to/key_file

• Generate an SSH key of [t]ype ecdsa and write it to key [f]ile: dropbearkey -t ecdsa -f path/to/key_file

• Generate an SSH key of [t]ype RSA with 4096-bit key [s]ize and write it to key [f]ile: dropbearkey -t rsa -s 4096 -f path/to/key_file

• Print the private key fingerprint and public key in key [f]ile: dropbearkey -y -f path/to/key_file

tldr.sh

dropbearkey generates a RSA, DSS, ECDSA, or Ed25519 format SSH private key, and saves it to a file for the use with the Dropbear client or server. Note that some SSH implementations use the term “DSA” rather than “DSS”, they mean the same thing.

-t type

Type of key to generate. Must be one of rsa, ecdsa, ed25519, or dss.

-f file

Write the secret key to the file file. For client authentication ~/.ssh/id_dropbear is loaded by default

-s bits

Set the key size to bits bits, should be multiple of 8 (optional).

-y

Just print the publickey and fingerprint for the private key in file.

The program dropbearconvert(1) can be used to convert between Dropbear and OpenSSH key formats.

Dropbear does not support encrypted keys.

generate a host-key:

# dropbearkey -t rsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key

extract a public key suitable for authorized_keys from private key:

# dropbearkey -y -f id_rsa | grep "^ssh-rsa " >> authorized_keys

dbclient(1), dropbearconvert(1), dropbear(8)

https://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html

Matt Johnston <matt@ucc.asn.au>.
Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org> wrote this manual page.

dbclient(1), dropbear(8), dropbearconvert(1).