SSH Server and Key Login

I wanted to send commands from other computers to my Windows 10 machine. Upon initial install of Windows, I logged in with my Microsoft account and was met with Permission denied, please try again. when trying passwords

Install OpenSSH Server

  1. install the client. Search for More Options in the Windows start menu
  2. install OpenSSH Server
  3. search for Services in the Windows Start menu
  4. right click Open SSH SSH Server and hit Properties
  5. set Startup type to automatic

Setup SSH Keys

  1. Edit files as Administrator. I use VS Code ran as Administrator to edit these files
  2. create a file named administrators_authorized_keys here →'C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys'
  3. in an admin privileged terminal run icacls .\administrators_authorized_keys /inheritance:r /grant "Administrators:F" /grant "System:F"
  4. create an SSH key on your remote computer
  5. copy the .ssh/id_rsa.pub contents to the clipboard
  6. On Windows 10 paste key into 'C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys'

sshd_config file

...
PubkeyAuthentication yes
...

# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
PasswordAuthentication no
PermitEmptyPasswords no
...

in Services window. Restart OpenSSH SSH Server

Bonus

Now I'm able to turn off my windows machine with an authorized remote computer via
ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i /config/.ssh/id_rsa UERSNAME@192.168.x.xxx 'rundll32.exe powrprof.dll, SetSuspendState Sleep'

Credits