ssh encryption strength

[J. Kyllo]

Ahhh, I see.  And, I have no clue.  Helps, doesn' it?

-Jeff

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On Sun, 6 Feb 2000, William Kreuter wrote:

> jkyllo> I'm not sure that I completely understand the question,
> jkyllo> but one way to do crontab stuff is first to ensure that
> jkyllo> the machine is _very_ secure and then you can create an
> jkyllo> RSA key.  But still, if someone is able to get into your
> jkyllo> account and get your private key, you're screwed.  I hope
> jkyllo> this answered some remote part of the question!
> 
> I probably didn't ask very clearly.  My question was about ssh
> passphrases, such as those entered using "ssh-add".  Let's assume that
> ssh is otherwise all set up and there's no question about the security
> of any of the machines involved.
> 
> If you have a passphrase set, then you can't use ssh in a crontab, or
> in any setting where an interactive response isn't possible, because
> there isn't any practical way to enter the passphrase.  Therefore, I
> don't set a passphrase.
> 
> My question essentially was, what additional security is provided by
> the passphrase, and how (if at all) is my security lessened by not
> setting a passphrase.
> 
> William Kreuter, Senior Computer Specialist, University of Washington
> Ctr. for Cost & Outcomes Research, 146 N. Canal St. #300, Seattle, WA 98103
> billyk at u.washington.edu                 http://staff.washington.edu/billyk/
> voice or voice mail: 206-543-5007    fax: 206-543-5318     mailstop: 358853
> 
>