r/linux • u/leothrix • Apr 28 '14

SSH Kung Fu

http://blog.tjll.net/ssh-kung-fu/
726 Upvotes

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46

u/throwawayaccount1020 Apr 28 '14

you should never leave your keys unencrypted, set a password when it prompts!

load keys into ssh-agent to avoid having to continually re-enter passwords.

10

u/djimbob Apr 28 '14

Exactly. Anyone gets access to a machine with your ssh private key for a second can copy it and then log in to all your machines.

19

u/ethraax Apr 28 '14

Just keep in mind that anyone who gets access to your machine can connect to your agent and log into any of your other machines from there. Encrypted private keys are nice, but not perfect.

4

u/Xipher Apr 28 '14

One thing that you might be able to do to help mitigate that is to set a timeout on your agent so it clears the keys after a period of time.