Telnet versus SSH

Many people continue to use Telnet for sensitive applications or access to critical systems. Telnet is CLEARTEXT, so all the data, including the login id is visible is someone intercepts that session

I did a little research and found out that if I removed the rsa key by using this command ' crypto key zeroize rsa' and then added the 'crypto key generate rsa generate-keys modulus 1024, then that would work. Any thoughts? No service pad. No service password-encryption. Hostname Sales-SW-ACC2. Ip domain name my.company.come. First, you must create the keys on both devices. We recommend using at least 1024-bit keys in production networks: Router1#configure terminal Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. Router1(config)#crypto key generate rsa The name for the keys will be: Router1.oreilly.com Choose the size of the key modulus in the range of 360 to 2048 for your General Purpose Keys. Jun 11, 2019  SW1 ( config)# crypto key generate rsa. How many bits in the modulus 512: 1024% Generating 1024 bit RSA keys, keys will be non-exportableOK Set the size of key to 1024 bits. If your Cisco Switch is running an older version of Cisco IOS image, then it is extremely recommended that you upgrade to latest Cisco IOS. Crypto key generate rsa general-keys label tokenkey1 storage usbtoken0: The following example specifies the redundancy keyword: Router(config)# crypto key generate rsa label MYKEYS redundancy. The name for the keys will be: MYKEYS. Choose the size of the key modulus in the range of 360 to 2048 for your. General Purpose Keys. The first thing we have to do is generate the public and private keys.We first generate the private key. To do so, use the following command: openssl genrsa -out privatekey.pem 1024. The above command instructs OpenSSL to use RSA to generate a private key with a size of 1024 bytes. The key is then stored securely within a file called 'private. Oct 02, 2015 SSH Config and crypto key generate RSA command. Use this command to generate RSA key pairs for your Cisco device (such as a router). Keys are generated in pairs–one public RSA key and one private RSA key. If your router already has RSA keys when you issue this command, you will be warned and prompted to replace the existing keys with new keys.

Solved: I have switch 3548-XL with version 12.0(5.3)WC. When attempting to run crypto key genearte rsa, it doesn't work. IP200#conf t Enter configuration commands, one per line.

Here’s what this looks like using Wireshark an Open Source Protocol Analyzer when we use the Follow TCP Stream feature in Wireshark.

The next characters are red (the character I typed) and blue (the characters echoed back)

You clearly see the User Verification Prompt.Here's the telnet trace file.

Below you can see me typing in my username;

In this screenshot below you can see me entering the commandenable and the the enable password.

How to Enable SSH Version 1 on Cisco

Before you can enable SSH you need to assign individual (or group) user IDs and passwords.

These are just login id's and are required regardless if you use Telnet or SSH.

To enable locally administered user IDs, use the following set of configuration commands. I would not suggest using the nopassword parameter.

Put your own data in the italized text.

Now when you telnet into the device you should see the Username prompt

Now that you have login id's created you can turn on SSH version 1.

To enable SSH, use the following set of configuration commands. I would not suggest using the nopassword parameter.

Put your own data in the italized text.

Now we'll try to capture the SSH login and as you can see the login data is no longer in clear text. Here's the SSH 1 trace file.

The moral of the story is not to use Cleartext logins if the device or application is sensitive.

To upgrade to even more secure SSH version 2, type in the following commands

the SSH version 2 trace files are here

In this write up I used;

• Wireshark Protocol Analyzer(free)

• Putty Telnet/SSH Client(free)

• Cisco Switch(not free)

• October 2, 2015
• Posted by: Syed Shujaat
• Category: Cisco, Networking Solutions

Use this command to generate RSA key pairs for your Cisco device (such as a router). keys are generated in pairs–one public RSA key and one private RSA key.

If your router already has RSA keys when you issue this command, you will be warned and prompted to replace the existing keys with new keys.

NOTE: Before issuing this command, ensure that your router has a hostname and IP domain name configured (with the hostname and ipdomain-name commands).

You will be unable to complete the cryptokeygeneratersacommand without a hostname and IP domain name. (This situation is not true when you generate only a named key pair.)

Here are the steps to Enable SSH and Crypto Key setup : 2 config must requried for SSH

1 Setup Local VTY line User ID and password

router (Config) # Line VTY 0 15

router (Config-line)# login local

router (Config-line)# Exit

!!! create local login ID/Pass

router (Config)# username [loginid] password [cisco]

router (Config)# username loginid1 password cisco1

2. router (Config)# ip domain-name example.com

Crypto Key Generate Rsa 2048 Command

router (Config)# crypto key generate rsa

how many bits in the modulus [512] :1024

router (Config)# ip ssh version2

router (Config)# CTRL Z

This command is not saved in the router configuration; however, the RSA keys generated by this command are saved in the private configuration in NVRAM (which is never displayed to the user or backed up to another device) the next time the configuration is written to NVRAM.

Modulus Length

When you generate RSA keys, you will be prompted to enter a modulus length. The longer the modulus, the stronger the security. However, a longer modules take longer to generate (see the table below for sample times) and takes longer to use.

The size of Key Modulus range from 360 to 2048. Choosing modulus greater than 512 will take longer time.

Generate Rsa Key Command

Cisco IOS software does not support a modulus greater than 4096 bits. A length of less than 512 bits is normally not recommended. In certain situations, the shorter modulus may not function properly with IKE, so we recommend using a minimum modulus of 2048 bits.

Crypto Key Generate Rsa Ssh

Syntax Description : Optional Strings to embed with SSH Crypto key