OT: ssh passphrases (was Re: [PLUG] rsync)

Paul Heinlein heinlein at madboa.com
Thu Feb 5 08:22:01 UTC 2004


On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 gepr at tempusdictum.com wrote:

> This brings up a question I've had for awhile.  I use a not
> insignificant passphrase for my ssh identity.  Does this matter? Am
> I wasting keystrokes?

Yes, you're wasting keystrokes. :-) The long answer is that you could
save yourself time in the long run by

1. wrapping your X or terminal session in ssh-agent
2. load your key into memory using ssh-add

This assumes, of course, that you've already pushed your public key to
~/.ssh/authorized_keys on any remote machines you log into.

A simple demo is available in any xterm:

  you at localhost$ eval $(ssh-agent -s)
  Agent pid XXXX
  you at localhost$ ssh-add
  Enter passphrase for /home/you/.ssh/id_rsa:
  you at localhost$ ssh remote.host
  you at remotehost$ # hey no passphrase required! :-)
  you at remotehost$ exit
  you at localhost$ ssh-add -D
  All identities removed.
  you at localhost$ eval $(ssh-agent -k)
  echo Agent pid XXXX killed;

--Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com>




More information about the PLUG mailing list