How to add the Super Speedy Plugins SSH key to your server
If you need our assistance, it is highly likely we will need you to add our SSH key to your server. This article shows you how to do that, and provides you with our public SSH key.
Table of Contents
Why we use SSH keys?
SSH keys are safer than usernames + passwords. This is for numerous reasons, including:
- SSH keys are longer than passwords and are uncrackable
- Sharing a public SSH key is 100% safe – only we have the counterpart private key
- You can remove our SSH key at any point to remove access without having to change passwords or remove accounts
- By eliminating password sharing, we eliminate the (highly unlikely) chance of a hacker somehow hacking our messaging platform and gaining access to your server
Why we need access to your server
If we need access to your server, we’ll need root access. This is because root access provides:
- Access to view mysql, php, nginx, redis, fail2ban and other system logs
- Access to alter wp-config.php as required to enable the debug.log
- Access to view the debug.log
How to add our SSH key to your server to grant us access
On linux servers, there is a user called root. The root users home folder is /root/
For us to have temporary access to your server, we need you to add our SSH key to the correct file inside your /root folder. The file you need to edit is:
/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
You can edit this file using SSH or Filezilla or whatever technique you normally use to edit files on your server.
Note: The .ssh folder above is a hidden folder, so in Filezilla (for example) you’d have to type /root/.ssh/ into the folder area to view the contents of that folder, as Filezilla will not show it otherwise.
Append our key on a new line into this file. Here is Dave Hilditch’s public key – this is the one you should add unless otherwise instructed. It only gives him access.
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABJQAAAQEAlGexBmYAra4iPBgZWSsPWnmXubAxA5rBxV+HXAK03/22hIn3S5NNVAV5FZ8LW2yiTV/6Kan3c7pELv0ym9OXNq85ZXED4ayz0lhZ77/G+AmZW/+1zdIYJFgwJH6RdHzqypJx08Yiw4+r/ScvHkEhO+pOQoz/b41RLKFU75zRZUjDBGtEZPBQWk+wBcVQZY4umyO/XDRYZqO2yfmwxwfFbVahumksAdUU6Z7l3mwQFOGP+i9XQaiU7EUirU6WHZR7vRea2HDEUrlOJi3W3XtNeHuQyYpOigRq3nxoPXH175hhEhIUpkjXIqLeGbBImQJynR2W2D2uyYFWDicbJmSpGQ== davehilditch
How to remove access
To remove our access to your server, edit the /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file and delete the line containing our public key that you created earlier.
