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February 22, 2006

Tech Tip: An Illustrated Guide to SSH Agent Forwarding

I've been trying to convince a customer to go from using password authentication on his secure shell systems to using public key access, and this is as much for the benefits of agent forwarding as it is for the extra security involved. When my notes on the subject started getting longer, I figured it was time to turn this in to a Tech Tip covering the technical underpinnings of how it all works.

Once again, Adobe Illustrator has stepped up to the plate and helped me create the diagrams which augment the text, and I believe this Tip explains the material pretty clearly - early reviews have been positive.

Unixwiz.net Tech Tip: An Illustrated Guide to SSH Agent Forwarding

Table of Contents

  1. Ordinary Password Authentication
  2. Public Key Access
  3. Public Key Access with Agent Support
  4. Public Key Access with Agent Forwarding
  5. How Key Challenges Work
  6. Security Issues With Key Agents
  7. Additional Resources

As always, feedback, suggestions, and corrections are welcome.

Posted by steve at 10:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack