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Securing Your GitHub Account with SSH Keys

Working with source control in your own public or private GitHub repository will be a common occurrence for most system administrators. Through the use of standard SSH tools, the student will learn how to generate a special SSH key that can be used to secure access to a private repository. At the end of this learning activity, the student will know how to generate, add, and use this SSH key to secure their access to private repositories.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Beginner
Duration
Clock icon 30m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 29, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Create the SSH Key to Use to Secure Access to GitHub

    Creating a specific key to be used to authenticate the 'cloud_user' account on the provisioned system with your GitHub account can be done as follows:

    ssh-keygen

    Now we need to view the contents of the file that was created:

    cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub

    Let's copy it. Over in our GitHub account, if we get into our account's Settings, there's a menu option (on the left) for SSH and GPG keys. In there, we can click New SSH key. There's a web form here. Let's give our key a meaningful name (like lab server) in the Title spot, and paste our key's contents into the Key spot.

  2. Challenge

    Create a Git Clone

    Now we can create a Git clone:

    git clone [email protected]:linuxacademy/content-source-control-git.git

    After we run that, we'll get the usual The authenticity of host... message. We can just type yes here, and should see the Git repo get cloned locally.

Pluralsight Skills - Labs - Pluralsight
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Pluralsight Skills

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

What's a lab?

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

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We will provide the credentials and environment necessary for you to practice right within your browser.

Guided walkthrough

Follow along with the author’s guided walkthrough and build something new in your provided environment!

Did you know?

On average, you retain 75% more of your learning if you get time for practice.
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