On Tue, Aug 30, 2005 at 08:12:47PM -0700, Sebastian Smith wrote:
...
> Why not have a passphrase-less ssh key?  Well... it breaks the public key 
> crytography.  If you don't require a passphrase there is no way to 
> validate that the connecting user is who they say they are (I'm sure you 

I don't agree, but maybe I just don't understand.

When an ssh key public/private key pair is created I can choose to add a
layer of protection to the private half in the form of a passphrase
which, if I'm not mistaken, is used to encrypt the private key.  this
makes it so I have to enter the passphrase in order to "unlock" the
private key so that I can use it.  everything else is the same.  right?
this would only break public key crypto if I always left my private key
in a place where someone else could reach it.

I only create passphrase-less keys using the root account on well
protected systems I admin, so it think they can be trusted pretty well.

- Ben


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