Symptom:
When a SSH key pair is created within GoAnywhere MFT and then exported, it cannot be used inside WinSCP as it errors out when trying to set the key.
Cause:
The private key created by GoAnywhere is protected by a password that encrypts the key itself. WinSCP's internal mechanism cannot convert encrypted keys to its own format and therefore fails.
Solution:
To use the keys in WinSCP, we need to decrypt the key first and then use the built-in WinSCP converter.
- Copy the private key to a machine with OpenSSL installed
- Decrypt the key content using the following command:
openssl rsa -in [original.key] -out [new.key]
- Import the key into WinSCP. When asked to convert, answer yes.
Important:
If the password for the key is missing, create a new one. You cannot decrypt the key if you do not have the password.
Additional resources:
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