Private Key Storage for External Services

How-To Section

If you are connecting to an external service or are setting up SimpleSAML and need to store a private key in a persistent and secure location, it's recommended to create a directory off your home directory. In the example below, we use a directory named "private_keys", but you can change the name to best suit your needs:

Replace [SITENAME] with your application's site name.

/home/[SITENAME]/private_keys

Warning

Never add your private key to your code repository, as this can pose a security risk.

To create a directory off your home directory:

• SSH into your server
• Change directory to your home directory:
  copy

  cd /home/[SITENAME]

• Create the directory:
  copy

  mkdir private_keys

Once the directory is created, double check the permission  of the directory to ensure they meet your requirements using ls -lah .