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Got a SFTP Hostname username password from someone and he gave me a Server RSA public key fingerprint like this: d2:h4:h5:gf:f4 etcetera. But how do i need to connect to this host, doesnt this fingerprint key need to be in a file? I already tried connecting to the host with winscp and putty, but i do not know where to enter the fingerprint. And also next to this i tried to ping the host, the host is called : test.example.com on port 7001 I pinged with cmd.exe but i get no response.

My questions are:

  1. Do i need to create a file from the rsa string
  2. is the server maybe down? or do you need to have the RSA fingerpring to also check the activity of the server

I googled for hours and could not get an answer thank you

hjpotter92
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Nuri Ensing
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3 Answers3

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You don't need to put fingerprint anywhere. Fingerprint is just for ensure you're connecting to right server (it's again MITM attack). You just need to provide server, post, username and password.

Ondra Sniper Flidr
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The RSA fingerprint is usually used to determinate the "identity" of the server, the first time you connect to the server it will gave you its public key and you could verify if it match the one you got, this way you'll be sure you're connected to the right server and not to a "fake" one (this could happen in a man in the middle scenario where someone want to steal your data).

All you need to connect via SFTP is a client that support it, Filezilla should do it, and you only need to provide it the hostname (or IP address), user, password and the port

As for the ping, a server (or a network host in general) can be configured to not respond to it or it could be blocked by a firewall or something similar, so it is not always a good way to determinate if a host is reachable or not, you should test the connection on a service you know it should work

SwH
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You don't have to enter the fingerprint. It allows you to verify that you are connecting to the right host: The first time you connect to the server, you'll get the server' fingerprint to verify the host authenticity. Just compare it with the one you where provided.

So, answering you questions.

  1. Do I need to create a file from the rsa string? Not at all.

  2. Is the server maybe down? That has nothing to do with fingerprint or authentication nor with ping probes. Just use your favorite sftp client to connect by providing the right IP/port. I assume you are a MSwindows user: try filezilla.

Ra_
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