General

Have you ever wanted to change SSH authentication on your Windows server with a public key and it failed after setting it? let's follow this step

Create authorized_keys

cd C:\Users\Administrator\.ssh
ssh-keygen
type id_rsa.pub > authorized_keys

Change the permission

icacls authorized_keys /inheritance:r /grant "Administrators:F" /grant "SYSTEM:F"

or we can try manual with

• Right click authorized_keys, go to Properties -> Security -> Advanced
• Click Disable inheritance;
• Choose Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object when prompted;

Change some paramaters on sshd_config

cd %programdata%
cd ssh

PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no
PermitEmptyPassword no

Then disable the authorized default keys on sshd_config

# Match Group administrators                                                    
#       AuthorizedKeysFile __PROGRAMDATA__/ssh/administrators_authorized_keys

Reference

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16212816/setting-up-openssh-for-windows-using-public-key-authentication