SSH Key Authentication: Passwordless Login to Your Seedbox

Short answer: SSH keys work with the OpenSSH app on your seedbox, not with the port-22 SFTP login. Generate a key pair on your computer, copy the public half to the app with one command, and from then on ssh, rsync and scp connect without a password. This matters for anything automated — a NAS pulling on a schedule cannot type a password.

Before you start

• Install the OpenSSH app from your control panel and note the hostname and port it shows. The OpenSSH tutorial walks through that.
• Port 22 — the SFTP login FileZilla and WinSCP use — accepts your password only. Keys are not needed there, and you cannot add them yourself; that login is confined to file transfer. Nothing below applies to it.

Step 1: Generate a key pair

macOS / Linux

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "seedbox"

Press Enter to accept the default location (~/.ssh/id_ed25519). A passphrase is optional; leave it empty if a scheduled job will use the key.

Windows (PowerShell)

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "seedbox"

The key lands in C:\Users\you\.ssh\id_ed25519.

You now have two files: id_ed25519 (private — never share it) and id_ed25519.pub (public — this is what goes on the seedbox).

Step 2: Copy the public key to the OpenSSH app

macOS / Linux

ssh-copy-id -p PORT username@hostname

Enter your seedbox password once. The command appends your public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys inside the app.

Windows, or any system without ssh-copy-id

Print your public key, then log in and paste it in:

type $env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub     # Windows
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub                      # macOS / Linux

ssh username@hostname -p PORT
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
echo "PASTE-YOUR-PUBLIC-KEY-HERE" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
exit

Step 3: Test

ssh username@hostname -p PORT

It should connect without asking for a password. If it still asks, run ssh -v username@hostname -p PORT and look for the line that says which key it offered and whether the server accepted it. The usual causes are a key in a non-default location (use -i path/to/key), or the paste in Step 2 having broken the key across two lines.

Using the key for rsync and scp

Both take the same port option:

rsync -avP -e "ssh -p PORT" username@hostname:/home/username/downloads/complete/ /local/folder/
scp -P PORT username@hostname:/home/username/downloads/file.mkv .

Put either in a scheduled task on your NAS or home machine and it runs unattended. Run the job on the machine that receives the files; the seedbox side is the app, which is not there to keep timers.

Frequently asked questions

Can I disable password login on the app?

Not from your side — password login stays on so that a lost key never locks you out. Your password is the same one as ruTorrent, so keep that strong.

Do keys survive reinstalling the app?

The app’s configuration folder, including authorized_keys, is kept across restarts and updates. If you uninstall and reinstall the app it starts clean, and you repeat Step 2.

Can I use the same key for SFTP in FileZilla?

No — port 22 uses your password. FileZilla, WinSCP and Cyberduck all remember it, so in practice this only matters for scripts, which should use the app’s port anyway.