Windows SSH into CentOS using Private Key - Not working

I'm on Windows 10. Need to ssh into a Linux CentOS server. Trying both Putty and Windows SSH (turned on in Features.. Powershell?).

Using PuttyGen, I generated a private & public RSA key pair - rsa & rsa.pub , without any passphrase. Both files are on my desktop. server333 has an entry in C:\Users\johndoe.ssh\known_hosts. There are no other files or directories in that .ssh directory on my windows PC. The public key is also copied into the linux box's /home/johndoe/.ssh/authorized_keys

I tried ssh -i rsa -vvv server333, but it's not working. Here is the log:

c:\Users\johndoe\Desktop>ssh -i rsa -vvv server333
OpenSSH_for_Windows_7.7p1, LibreSSL 2.6.5
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/config error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_config error:2
debug2: resolving "server333" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to server333 [1.2.3.4] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
key_load_public: invalid format
debug1: identity file rsa type -1
debug3: Failed to open file:c:/Users/johndoe/Desktop/rsa-cert error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:c:/Users/johndoe/Desktop/rsa-cert.pub error:2
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file rsa-cert type -1
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_for_Windows_7.7
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_7.4
debug1: match: OpenSSH_7.4 pat OpenSSH* compat 0x04000000
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug1: Authenticating to server333:22 as 'corp\\johndoe'
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from server333
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: [email protected],rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
debug3: send packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug3: receive packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: local client KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: curve25519-sha256,[email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha256,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,ext-info-c
debug2: host key algorithms: [email protected],rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,ssh-ed25519
debug2: ciphers ctos: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected]
debug2: ciphers stoc: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected]
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: compression ctos: none
debug2: compression stoc: none
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug2: peer server KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: [email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp521,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
debug2: host key algorithms: ssh-rsa,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256
debug2: ciphers ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
debug2: ciphers stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,[email protected]
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,[email protected]
debug2: compression ctos: none,[email protected]
debug2: compression stoc: none,[email protected]
debug2: languages ctos:
debug2: languages stoc:
debug2: first_kex_follows 0
debug2: reserved 0
debug1: kex: algorithm: [email protected]
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: rsa-sha2-512
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug3: send packet: type 30
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug3: receive packet: type 31
debug1: Server host key: ssh-rsa SHA256:abcd
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from server333
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type RSA in file C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from 1.2.3.4
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/Users/johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts2 error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts error:2
debug3: Failed to open file:C:/ProgramData/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 error:2
debug1: Host 'server333' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in C:\\Users\\johndoe/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: send packet: type 21
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug3: receive packet: type 21
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug3: unable to connect to pipe \\\\.\\pipe\\openssh-ssh-agent, error: 2
debug1: pubkey_prepare: ssh_get_authentication_socket: The socket is not connected
debug2: key: rsa (0000000000000000), explicit
debug3: send packet: type 5
debug3: receive packet: type 7
debug1: SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO received
debug1: kex_input_ext_info: server-sig-algs=<rsa-sha2-256,rsa-sha2-512>
debug3: receive packet: type 6
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug3: receive packet: type 53
debug3: input_userauth_banner
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debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug3: preferred publickey,keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_lookup publickey
debug3: remaining preferred: keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: rsa
debug3: sign_and_send_pubkey: RSA SHA256:zyxw
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup password
debug3: remaining preferred: ,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled password
debug1: Next authentication method: password
debug3: failed to open file:c:/dev/tty error:3
debug1: read_passphrase: can't open /dev/tty: No such file or directory
corp\johndoe@server333's password:

Solution 1:

It seems you not defined username on SSH host server.

you still can do this but you must define the user on SSH config file like :

vi ~/.ssh/config
...

Host server333
HostName your-server333-ip
User your-user
IdentityFile your-private-key

Then you can remote the server with :

ssh server333

Note: Make sure config file have 600 permission