If not, follow the directions under “Create an authentication subkey” here. If you do, you should see output for the following command: If you’re reading this guide, you probably already have a PGP key we just need to make sure you have an authentication-only subkey. Keys are used for three purposes (signing, encrypting, and authenticating), and it’s a best practice to generate and use separate subkeys exclusively for each separate purpose. The Procedure Generating an authentication-only subkey The GUI version of the utility, pinentry-mac, is the easiest alternative. This is installed as a dependency of gpg, but fails to be invoked by ssh for reasons beyond the scope of this guide. This is a lightweight program used to accept password input so that GnuPG doesn’t have to (for more on the security considerations behind this design, see here). Don’t install it just use the one that comes with gpg. There is a separate, keg-only brew formula for gpg-agent. You need at least v2.1 check with gpg -version and upgrade with brew install gpg if necessary.Ĭomes bundled with GnuPG and serves the same purpose that ssh-agent does: caches passwords so you don’t have to enter them twice in the same session. To make sure it stays dead, check your login scripts for a line containing eval "$(ssh-agent)" or similar and remove them. If it is, kill it ( ssh-agent -k, or killall ssh-agent if that doesn’t work). In fact, better safe than sorry: make sure ssh-agent is not running ( ps x | grep sh-agent). GnuPG provides its own utility as a stand-in for ssh-agent ( and has since at least 2005), which means ssh-agent is not required for this to work. You’ll be prompted for this passphrase the first time you log in, and if ssh-agent is running, you can use the same key to log into other servers, or log out and back in again, without needing the password.) (That is, you can set a passphrase on your SSH key for extra security. Its job is to cache SSH key passwords for the duration of the current login session. I believe you need at least v6.7 check with ssh -V and upgrade with brew install openssh if necessary.Ĭomes bundled with OpenSSH. I had my moments of doubt and tribulation, but somewhere I read that Werner Koch does this himself, so I pressed on. However, you can get GnuPG to manage this trickery for you, if you ask nicely. But I use my SSH key all the time, so I figured, why not consolidate? Because it will eat a day and a half of your precious time.Īs mentioned above, PGP keys and SSH keys are not the same thing, so you can’t just use one in place of the other. In any case, I almost never use my PGP key, so I still don’t really know how to use it. They’re talking about the OpenPGP standard. It’s easy to get these terms mixed up, but usually when people say “PGP”, gpg (“GNU Privacy Guard”) is a free and open-source PGPĮncryption program that most people use to manage their keys.and followed by all PGP encryption software. OpenPGP is an Internet Standard message format ( RFC 4880).Package which introduced PGP encryption to the world. PGP (“Pretty Good Privacy”) is the commercial, proprietary software.Made it) or decrypt messages intended only for you, among other things. Used to sign a document or a git commit ( i.e., prove you’re the one who This guide from Indiana University for details), and a PGP key can be Used to prove your identity in the course of your digital life - sort ofĪn SSH key authorizes you to log into an SSH server without a password (see Confused?Īsymmetric encryption keys are files (technically pairs of files) that are But they are different in their implementation, which makes them not the same thing. They can even use the same encryption algorithms. To be fair, the are the same kind of thing - that is, asymmetric encryption keys. It took me longer than I care to admit to understand this, given that the first StackExchange thread I found on the subject made it pretty clear that it’s not trivial to use one where you’re supposed to use the other.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |