haertig |
11-17-2013 08:46 PM |
As unSpawn mentioned, if you want a passphrase protected key, you will need an "ssh agent". In the Windows world, where many people use "putty" for their ssh client, the agent is named "pageant" and comes with the putty distribution. In the Linux world, the ssh agent is named "ssh-agent" (who would have thought?!)
Another option is to keep your private key, with no passphrase, on an external thumbdrive that you plug into your computer when ssh'ing. Then remove the thumbdrive when you're done for the day. And never lose the thumbdrive into some evil villians hands, since you private key is unprotected. You could also encrypt the thumbdrive so that even though your private key has no passphrase, it is still protected. But if you're going to that trouble, might as well just use an ssh agent instead.
For software using the keys, I don't know of any way to do that except by using no-passphrase keys. Who knows, somebody may be able to suggest a way to do that, but I don't know a way personally.
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