SSH keys use strong encryption

How to fix

To check the strength of a key:

  • Open Terminal app and type
    ssh-keygen -l -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  • Replace id_rsa with the name of the key that was reported
  • Press enter, the first returned value is key size

To check the strength of a key that you use in GitHub or GitLab:

  • visit aremykeyssafe.com,
  • enter the username/handle you use on the service to see the report.

Recommended key sizes are as follows:

  • For the RSA algorithm at least 2048, recommended 4096
  • The DSA algorithm should not be used
  • For the ECDSA algorithm it should be 521
  • For the ED25519 the key size should be 256 or larger

Sources NIST, SSH Academy.

If you want to create a new strong SSH key, the GitHub docs provide a great starting point.

Time to fix

< 1m

What

The strong key size is required to prevent bruteforcing of the private key or at least delay it.