On Sat, 2006-12-02 at 00:05 -0800, Tracy R Reed wrote:
> Gabriel Sechan wrote:
> >> From: "Lan Barnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> On Fri, December 1, 2006 1:32 pm, Gabriel Sechan wrote:
> >>> Not allowed by the security team, or I would.
> 
> This doesn't reflect well on the security team IMHO. I have seen 
> environments where ssh keys were not welcome also and it always came 
> from a lack of understanding how the keys work.
> 
> > for just getting it done than to get reprimanded.  Besides, I think the 
> > real 
> > issue the security team had was that noone was typing passwords to do it.  
> > We still use ssh daily, just not passwordless or key based ssh.
> 
> The right way to use ssh-keys is with ssh-agent. With ssh-agent you have 
> to enter the password once to decrypt you key which is held in memory 
> and only child processes of ssh-agent have access to it. More secure 
> than an potentially guessable normal passworded login.

i think that the problem with this setup, is that the security people
have no way to enforce that you create a key with a pass-phrase. once
they allow you to use ssh keys, it is up to you (the user) whether or
not to use a pass-phrase. at least that was the situation with sshd in
the past - i don't know if this issue was resolved yet.

so you see - the problem is of trusting your users. when did you last
meet a security person (and in a corporate) that trusts her users?

--guy

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