Talk:SSH keys
Contents
Default RSA key size
Maybe the default 2048 bit RSA key is better?
--Vogt 01:54, 31 August 2008 (EDT)
- I have just completed a tidyup, this including removing the section on connection control as I deemed it irrelevant. If needed, it is available in the history.
- -- Thelucster 13:51, 13 April 2009 (EDT)
sshd_config
Sometimes the 'ssh-add' is not enough to log in without a password. It is possible that ssh is configured in such way that only a limited group of users is allowed to the machine.
In this case - you need root-access to the server! - you have to change the configuration-file. Mostly you can find it as /etc/ssh/sshd_config
.
If the last line(s) of this file read(s): AllowUsers <username>
, you will have to add a similar line with your own username. Don't forget to restart the ssh deamon: /etc/init.d/sshd restart
.
-- Kobussie, 10 February 2009
Using pam_ssh module
I just want to add that one could also use the pam_ss module, available here http://pam-ssh.sourceforge.net/ or in the AUR to decrypt the ssh key on login and automatically start ssh-agent and add the keys. This way one would have a truely password less ssh session and in the same way not compromise security by using a passphrase less key.
- I have opened a new section on using pam_ssh to decrypt a user's ssh keys upon login. My experience with PAM in general is limited, so the content currently consists of a description of pam_ssh, some basic configuration instructions, and some of the limitations of pam_ssh which I have personally encountered.
- -- Ntwk 16:37, 18 December 2011 (EST)
ssh-agent
The current wiki entries tells to $ echo 'eval `ssh-agent`' >> ~/.bashrc
which will everytime spawn a new ssh-agent.
I think a more elegant way is only to add the export commands of ssh-agent to the ~/.bashrc
, so one ssh-agent can be used from every shell. This could be put in a small wrapper script:
#!/bin/sh # check if ssh-agent is running if [ -n "`ps -e|grep ssh-agent`" ];then echo "ssh-agent is already running" >&2 exit 1 fi # get new sock and pid agent=`ssh-agent |head -2` # delete old sock, pid and comment sed -i -e "/SSH_\(AUTH_SOCK\|AGENT_PID\)/d" ~/.bashrc # insert new sock and pid for new shells echo -e "# auto generated SSH_AUTH_SOCK and SSH_AGENT_PID" >> ~/.bashrc echo $agent >> ~/.bashrc # for evaluation in the current shell echo $agent
$ eval `./ssh_agent_wrapper.sh` "
this would make ssh-agent available on the current and all new shells.
Be sure you have added the key to your /etc/ssh/ssh_config
:
IdentityFile path/to/key
Alternative to manual key installation
We might want to mention that there's a script called 'ssh-copy-id' which comes with OpenSSH that install your public key in a remote machine's authorized_keys. There's a few caveat with it (it changes permissions of the user home directory, which should be a no-op in most situations; see the man page of ssh-copy-id -- and it also tells the user to make sure the script hasn't added extra keys, which might be a bit confusing for some).
- The article currently gives a description of how to use
ssh-copy-id
as well providing instructions on how to manually copy your pivate key to the remote server. I can't find any mention ofssh-copy-id
altering file or directory permissions on the remote server. On the contrary, thessh-copy-id
man page dated 14 November 1999 currently included in the OpenSSH man page states that it "does not modify the permissions of any pre-existing files of directories." - -- Ntwk 11:22, 21 December 2011 (EST)
cache time
In the description of gpg-agent.conf, it says that the example would cache the keys for 3 hours. If that's correct, gpg-agent seems to be using a rather odd unit of time. I tried to check in the man page for gpg-agent but couldn't find the options documented. Is the figure really correct? Or should it be 18000?
-- cfr (talk) 21:15, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
PuTTY
Those who connect from Windows often use PuTTY to hook up over ssh; as of April 2013, PuTTY does not support ECDSA. I forget that periodically and waste time creating such a key, assuming I'm not alone there, I added it under the encryption method.
-- Nitmd April 7, 2013