Connecting to Mallard with SecureCRT or Terminal (Mac)


Secure CRT

SecureCRT is provided on all OIT Computing Lab machines and is available for home computer download (visit the SecureCRT installation link here).

Follow these steps:

  1. If you are off-campus or on AU_WiFi/Eduroam, you will first need to connect via a VPN connection.
  2. Open SecureCRT on your computer. In the OIT Computing Labs, click on "Secure Shell to Mallard" on the computer's desktop.
  3. Use the Connection window to select where to access. If this window doesn't come up, click the Connection button on the far left.

    Telnet SecureCRT
  4. Select Mallard and click Connect. If Mallard is not an option, click the New Connection button (third from the left), enter mallard.auburn.edu as the Hostname, and click OK.
  5. Fill in your username (*This is case sensitive. so all letters should be lowercase.) for Login: and your main Auburn password for Password: when prompted.
  6. You have now created an SSH session. There are a variety of UNIX commands available to navigate and perform actions with.
  7. To disconnect, hit the Disconnect button (second from the left) or exit out of the program.

Terminal (Mac)

Terminal is a piece of software that is installed standard on all Mac computers. 

Follow these steps:

  1. If you are off-campus or on AU_WiFi/Eduroam, you will first need to connect via a VPN connection.
  2. Open Terminal by going to To open it, go to Finder > Find > Applications > Utilities > Terminal
  3. Type SSH username@mallard.auburn.edu *replace username with your Auburn username (*This is case sensitive. so all letters should be lowercase.)
  4. You may get a message similar to the following:
    The authenticity of host 'example.com (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)' can't be established.
    RSA key fingerprint is 59:55:ca:b8:32:9c:e8:02:0f:e6:25:b4:f4:f9:be:e3.
    Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)
    Just type the word yes
  5. Type in your Auburn password and press Enter/Return. (*You may not see any characters appear on the screen as you type. This is to be expected. Just type your Auburn Password and press Enter/Return.)
  6. At this point, you should be logged into the mallard server and can run the same commands that PC user run through SecureCRT.
  7. To disconnect, type the word exit or exit out of the program.

 

Key Fingerprints for Mallard.auburn.edu

Depending on your connection software, you may encounter any of these

256 SHA256:CJMQP5DYMjkmv+74UdQ4aUlNeCXe+Q96MDM69eVje+U mallard.auburn.edu (ECDSA)
2048 SHA256:lnb08CFCpvwIcE0RJI1RrRj5erqVkLNrR2LOcX8Wk60 mallard.auburn.edu (RSA)
256 SHA256:l+RSEyKa0PqFPhUYHHeEavvsFo1+Y4O8zVp+lmCYdJs mallard.auburn.edu (ED25519)

All are valid key fingerprints for Mallard.auburn.edu