PuTTY Key Generator

PuTTY Key Generator, also known as PuTTYgen, is a companion tool to PuTTY that specializes in generating and managing cryptographic keys for secure communication. As the name suggests, the idea behind the tool is to generate various types of cryptographic keys, including RSA, DSA, ECDSA, and Ed25519.

With most key generators I’ve tested, you simply need to hit the button and wait for the app to complete the task. This one is slightly different, as it asked me to move around the mouse to generate a bit of randomness.

What this means is that the app collects random input from your mouse movements that are used as a source of entropy to seed the key generation process. Since human movement is inherently unpredictable, it adds randomness to the key generation process.

Also known as entropy generation, the process provides highly secure keys that are more resilient to brute-force attacks or prediction. You have the option to further protect the keys with a password, and the app reminded my to add one before saving my new item.

As the app allows you to work with different cryptographic key formats, you will be happy to learn that it also packs a convenient conversion feature. The keys generated can be converted to ssh.com formats and used with other SSH clients and servers.

You may need to import existing keys from other SSH key management tools or systems into PuTTY, or vice versa. The app simplifies this process by enabling the conversion of keys to and from different formats, so you have one less thing to worry about during migration.

PuTTY Key Generator is an essential tool for anyone using PuTTY or similar SSH clients, offering robust key generation, conversion, and management capabilities in a user-friendly package.