On Sat, May 06, 2006 at 02:27:30PM +0200, Brent Frère wrote:
[passwordless ssh]
... which of
course is less than optimal from a security point
of view. If you managed a number of servers this way, it would
be sufficient for a cracker to get access to your single machine,
and he could play with all those servers.
Thus, depending on your needs, have a look at ssh-agent.
I won't be more explicit on the way I use this feature, as I don't want
to disclose my employer security habits, but could you be more explicit
about your idea implying ssh-agent ?
Thank you.
ssh-agent essentially keeps your key passwords for you, you activate
it when starting your session and type the password once, ssh-agent
will then manage things for you from then on, so you won't have to
type the password again.
This way, even if your machine is compromised, a cracker still needs
a password to gain access to other stuff.
I'm not using ssh-agent myself, but I have played a bit with it a
while back, can't really remember the details.
Greetings, Eric