Re: ssh key type ?

Gordon Messmer <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.linux.redhat.release.psyche
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Allan M. Stewart wrote:
>    I'm curious if there is any clear cut preference in choosing
> RSA or DSA keys. 

I believe that DSA is more resistant to current theoretical attacks.

>    I have been using DSA since this guarantees a connection under
> protocol version 2.

RSA1 keys are different than RSA2 keys.  It doesn't matter if you use 
"rsa" or "dsa" as your key type; it will only work for ssh2.  Only 
"rsa1" keys work for ssh1.

> Also, I seem to recall (but now can't find) that there was some question
> about RSA copyright. 

It was patents which posed a problem.  Those patents are up, and there 
is no longer a problem.

> For my purposes, the main use will be for batch jobs of scp. 

If you're security minded, it's more important to tie the key to the job 
than to pick the right key, I think.  For instance, if you want to copy 
files from one system to another, generate a key on the source, and 
install the public key on the destination with a "command" option like this:

command="scp -t /var/www/html/index.html" ssh-rsa .........
(on the client, use "scp -i <identity-file> new-index.html \
	destination.host:/var/www/html/index.html" )

or:

command="rsync --server -a . /var/www/html/" ssh-rsa .........
(on the client, use "rsync -a -e 'ssh -i <identity-file>' \
	/var/www/html/ destination.host:/var/www/html/" )



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