Are public SSH keys sensitive?
No, unless you use a unique one per service. It lets attackers identify you. If you use the same public key for service A and service B, and your public key gets leaked for both of them, this will cross-link your two accounts together.
Is it OK to share public keys?
You can share your public key with anyone who wants to communicate with you; it doesn’t matter who sees it. The public key comes paired with a file called a private key. You can think of the private key like an actual key that you have to protect and keep safe. Your private key is used to encrypt and decrypt messages.
How does a remote computer use a public key?
A remote computer identifies itself to a user using its public key. When a user attempts to connect, the remote computer issues a “challenge” derived from the public key, for which only someone possessing the paired private key could correctly decrypt and respond. Once the challenge is correctly answered, the remote computer provides access.
Do you need a SSH key to connect to a remote server?
The computer you use to connect to the remote server must have a version of SSH installed. This document includes instructions for generating a key pair with command-line SSH on a Linux or macOS computer, and with PuTTY on a Windows computer. You need to be able to transfer your public key to the remote system.
How does SSH public key authentication work for remote systems?
Before you begin. Using SSH public-key authentication to connect to a remote system is a robust, more secure alternative to logging in with an account password or passphrase. SSH public-key authentication relies on asymmetric cryptographic algorithms that generate a pair of separate keys (i.e., a key pair), one “private” and the other “public”.
What do you need to know about SSH keys?
The Secure Shell Protocol (or SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol that allows users to securely access a remote computer over an unsecured network. Though SSH supports password-based authentication, it is generally recommended that you use SSH keys instead.